Lines in the Sand
by EndangeredMuffin
Summary: They say curiosity killed the cat, but how could you be anything but curious when you're reborn in a world where the laws of physics could be bent on a mere whim? A SI OC story.
1. Prologue: An Age Old Question

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

About the story: This is a reincarnation fic and it will primarily be your typical adventure/actiony Naruto story; however, it will be under the lens of an author who cares a bit more about the how and why things work rather than simply 'because chakra'. Hopefully this take on the Naruto universe will be interesting for you to read.

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Lines in the sand

Prologue: An Age Old Question

What was it that constituted a self?

In other words, what was it that made me, me?

An age old question, one asked since time immemorial. Questioned and pondered by the world's finest minds throughout the ages. Even now, it continued to draw the wonder of many. Everyone's 'answer' to it was different, coloured and shaped by their unique perspectives and experiences.

Was it the soul? Those of religious inclination may suggest so. That the true self lay in some ethereal, incorporeal essence which was encapsulated by the body. In turn, the body served as a conduit that the soul used to interact with the world. But if that were true, then what was it that made up a soul? Surely, something as complex and convoluted as a soul had to be comprised of something simpler right? Perhaps some sort of spiritual energy?

Or was the soul in and of itself irreducible? That there was no simpler or smaller, and instead it exists as is.

I couldn't say, nor did I have any way of knowing. After all, I was not religious. And thus, I couldn't continue down this line of reasoning. I would simply end up speculating in manners in which I was not educated or informed in. I was not going to reach a meaningful conclusion by ruminating on a subject I have no background in.

By the same token, I couldn't answer it through rhetorics or other methods of philosophy like a philosopher would. Any endeavour to do so would be amateurish at best, and downright insulting at worst. I was not a practitioner of this line of reasoning. In fact, I'm sure there are already some philosophers out there who were offended by how I framed their practice.

No, I was no philosopher, nor was I a person of faith.

I was, am a person of science.

And it suited me. It fit my personality. I was factual, objective, even to a fault. People told me I lacked romance. Far too deep in the numbers they would say. Not enough heart, not enough soul. But I didn't care. In fact, I was proud of it.

I lived by the scientific method. I lived for it.

The scientific method gave rise to laws and theories. 'Rules' that explained the behaviour of the world. Through them, you can make predictions. You can expect an outcome before it happens. Not just for one or two things either. If you understood the underlying principles, you can just about apply it to anything. It has never let me down.

Except for when it did.

To the question of what constituted a self, I had an answer. Had. If asked several years ago, I would've said that the self was a product or by-product of the neural connections and processes in the brain. Sure, it was a flaky answer, half-assed at best. But an answer was an answer. I could go a little further, explain which parts of your brain were responsible for what, memory generation, retention, reflexes and even some of your emotions. However, it wasn't my area of expertise. You'd have to ask a neurologist for a more comprehensive answer.

But now? Now I couldn't even give you that half-baked answer.

How could I? When every time I opened my eyes, I see living proof that served to prove the contrary.

Taking a deep breath, I turned my gaze away from the clouds and back towards the pond in which I dangled my feet in. I waded them gently, the slight chill from the cold and gentle current providing great relief on an otherwise unbearable hot summer day.

It wasn't the serene beauty of the scenery in front of me that held my attention. Nor was it the sight of the numerous families seeking refuge from the sweltering heat and playing in the water. It was the reflection in the water.

More specifically, it was my reflection in the water. Well, what should have been my reflection in the water. Whether or not it truly was mine could be left up for debate.

Instead of the visage I'd come to expect from my reflection, someone completely different came to life. Dark hair and oriental features, that much wasn't too contrary to my expectations. However, that was about all that remained familiar. Those eyes were not my eyes. That nose was not my nose. Nor were those my cheeks, my mouth, my hair, lips neck, nadda. Everything about it was wrong. And, most of all, she was young. Much too young, about three at the most.

No, the person staring back at me was NOT me.

Yet, she moved when I moved. She blinked when I blinked. Tilted her head when I did, spoke when I spoke, and saw what I saw.

She was me, but not me.

And it was precisely because of this inexplicable phenomena, this incomprehensible contradiction, that my answer to that age old question couldn't possibly hold true. For the crux of the idea laid in the fact that the self was a manifestation of some sort from the neurons and axons of the brain. And the brain, like every other organ, was a part of your physical body.

So when you died, so too do the cells which sustained your life, including those in your brain. Maybe not all at once and at different rates, but when those cells responsible for manifesting your sense of self died, 'you' died.

It was simple, no physical body, no sense of self. Different physical body, different sense of self.

So then, how was 'I' here?

Moving, breathing, living in another body that was not my own. Almost as if someone downloaded my brain and installed it into this one. It didn't make sense. None of this made sense. According to what we knew of science, this was an impossibility. It literally could not happen.

Except it did.

I kicked my feet violently in the water. Well, with about as much violence a child this age could muster. The water's surface broke, ripples and waves destroying 'my' reflection. But sure enough, with the same certainty of the sun rising in the east and setting in the west, it came back. Showing me the same confused little girl staring back at me. It taunted me, it mocked me. It made me question everything I thought I knew about the world. Did the sun even rise in the east and set in the west anymore?

I kicked again and again. Almost as if I were to just kick hard enough or fast enough, that the world would inform me that this was all just a prank. That, when my reflection reformed, it would be back to normal. Or perhaps I would wake up and this would all be just a dream, one really long dream. Well, perhaps a nightmare would be more apt a description.

But it was to no avail. It was mortifying, to have almost everything you thought you knew come crashing down on you. Like growing up calling a colour red, only to be told in university that it was actually blue. Or finding out that the meat you thought was pork all this time was in fact beef.

Part of me entertained the idea of the opposite scenario, that maybe my previous life was the dream instead. But then that left me with trying to explain how a child could possibly dream the things I saw, that I knew. The laws of thermodynamics, the theory of relativity, computers, and all the other ideas that simply could not spontaneously come to life in a child's head. And so, it remained just that, an entertaining thought.

Maybe the pastor was onto something when he talked about souls. Or the Buddhists got it right about reincarnation. Because surely, this is what it was right? That I reincarnated with my past memories? Or that my soul got put into this body?

"Yume," a voice called out from my right, interrupting my thoughts. "Are you alright?" The brunette asked, concern evident in her tone.

I wanted to tell her no, that I wasn't alright. In fact, it'd be an even bigger problem if I were alright given these circumstances. However, I wasn't about to divulge my thoughts, not until I had more information. "I'm okay, Okaa-san," I mustered, lies and smiles plastered all over my face. "Just playing."

She gave me the look that parents always gave when they didn't believe what their child was saying, so I did what any child would do in my situation. I doubled down on it and smiled brighter, toothy and goofy, adorable only on a face as young as mine appeared to be. I could tell she didn't buy it one bit, but she didn't press me further on it. "We'll stay just a little longer," she acquiesced, "we need to return home soon to start on making dinner."

I simply nodded in acknowledgement and returned to my thoughts.

Things were definitively not fine. Things I were absolutely dead certain on were proven false, and I was still reeling from the shock of it all. But that was okay. I will be fine when the initial distress from the absurdity of it all begins to subside.

You see, I was a person of science. It fitted with my personality. I was factual, objective, definitely to a fault. I lived by the scientific method, and I lived for it. It gave rise to laws and theories, 'rules' that explained the behaviour of the world. And sometimes they were proven wrong.

But that was the beauty of the scientific method, it was literally how it worked. You make hypotheses, conjectures and speculations that explained something based on observations and what you know. And then you test them. You create experiments, find evidence and circumstances that proved it right or wrong. Based on those results, you iterate, iterate, and iterate some more. Only when they are battle proven and well-substantiated, do they turn into theories or laws.

So maybe my present situation isn't consistent with what I thought I knew. Perhaps it went even went counter to ideas I would've stood on a hill and died by. But now that there was evidence to prove the contrary, all it meant was that I didn't know enough. And what better way to spend my new found life and all the extra years it granted me than to discover how it came to be.

A grin spread across my face. I could feel the excitement course through my tiny body. My toes tingled with a newborn eagerness, or maybe it was just from the cold water.

I may not know what made my present circumstances possible, nor the how and why it happened. But there was an explanation out there somewhere, and I'm going to find it.

Even if it is the last thing I do.

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A/N

I hope you found the premise interesting. This will be the first time I took pen to paper with my ideas on a story so please be gentle and forgive me for sucking.

I've actually been wanting to contribute my own work to the archive since about 2016; however, I shied out of doing so every single time. Whenever I sat in front of a keyboard and got something written up, when it came time to revisit it to continue or edit, I couldn't help but notice how awful it reads and pick it apart until it is deleted or buried under a mountain of shame.

Realising I would never publish something at that rate, I figured I'd upload something even if I'm not entirely happy with the product and then do my best from there. And so, please enjoy,

Lines in the sand.


	2. Line 1: A Shinobi

Lines in the Sand

Arc 1 - A Shinobi

Line 1: A Shinobi

I stared down my nemesis, squared up my shoulders, and took a deep breath to prepare myself for the task ahead.

For nearly two years now, it had bested me in all our encounters thus far. It lorded its triumph on a daily basis, humiliating and embarrassing me at every trial. It left me more than just battered and bruised, it struck down my pride at its core.

What might be this adversary that humbles me so, you ask? It is the stairs. Yes, the stairs.

Every time I wanted to trespass its terrace, I had been forced to acquit to its authority and have been relegated to crawling to proceed. Although I made a breakthrough and managed to walk them last year, it was with great difficulty and with the aid of the railings.

But no more. No longer shall I stand for this disgrace and cower before its might. All of that ends now. Today will be the day I conquer this foe and vanquish this demon once and for all. I will walk down them without assistance.

An overreaction? Making a big deal out of nothing? Blasphemy. Blasphemy I say. My honour seeks satisfaction.

The first several steps came easy enough. But those were always the easiest. Sure, I looked funny going down the stairs, like a penguin on stilts, but surely that was an excusable affair. After all, each individual step was over half the height of my legs.

I made good time too. Already, I had reached the halfway point where the stairs plateaued to round the corner. Taking a glance past the stairs, I spot a brunette woman putting down her newspaper to watch my journey. Returning her smile with one of my own, I resumed my quest.

The distraction nearly costed me as I took a stride too far for one of the steps. However, before it became a problem and disrupted my balance, my other leg already made contact with the next step and I recovered. The rest of my descent continued unopposed and my destination approached rapidly.

Three, two, one, and touchdown. Applause filled the air along with the elation of finally walking down the stairs like a normal person. "Congratulations Yume! You finally did it!" she exclaimed, pride lacing her voice. When I gave a bow to my audience of one, a bit of laugher accompanied her clapping. "You should show your dad when he gets home, he'll be so proud."

I let the pride show on my face and my grin spread uninhibited. "Okaa-san, thank you!" I smiled again and gave another bow, this time of gratitude.

She laughed some more at my flourishing. When her giggles subsided some, she beckoned me over to the table. "Come eat while breakfast is still warm," she said warmly.

Asaki Miyako, my mother figure in this life. She was a pleasant woman. Kind, gentle, motherly. She fit every bill of the person you want in a mom.

However, calling her such still left a distaste in my mouth. It felt wrong, like a betrayal to my real mom. It was as if I were replacing her with another. Still, I couldn't call her Miyako, so I made a distinction in my mind. She can be Okaa-san, and mom was mom. A pedantic differentiation, but an important one for me.

Sitting down at the table I took stock of the food atop it. It was the usual grilled mackerel, pickled vegetables, and rice combination that

seemed to populate the dining table at least once in every three meals.

Although the variety in our meals might've been lacking, I honestly didn't mind. I loved seafood and fish was amongst my favourite protein. And so, eating mackerel often was a boon, not a misfortune. The resultant savings were just a bonus on top.

As I started munching on my food, she gave me a pat on the head before she resumed reading her newspaper. With nothing to do aside from eating, I took another look around the house.

Of the two story house, the entirety of the first floor was composed of a single room. It was multifaceted in the sense that it served multiple purposes, but with the exception of the kitchen, that distinction was largely a matter of formality.

One corner of the room was occupied by the stairs leading to the upper levels. In another was the living room/dining room hybrid. It was adorned with a low square table which I was now eating at and a large drawer in which most of the loose articles of the household were stored. In the third corner was a small cubby and the door that lead out of the house.

The last corner was the kitchen, the only one that was 'separated' from the rest in the sense that it was a step lower and had a cement floor rather than the wooden ones of the rest of the house. It wasn't constrained to a quarter of the floor as it extended a bit into the doorway corner, but it was necessary or else it would never fit all the necessities of a kitchen.

Overall, the house was small and quite cramped. However, it was cozy, lived in, and somewhere during the three years I've stayed here, it had become home.

As I was finishing up my food, she got up and began unfolding the stroller tucked beside the drawer. Immediately, I let out whines of protest. I hated the stroller for much the same reasons I was so determined to walk down the stairs without assistance. It was a matter of autonomy.

She smirked at me, clearly amused by my distaste for the stroller. "Yume, I know you would rather walk but we'll be going to the hospital today. It's far," she justified.

"Hospital? What is?" I asked, momentarily more curious about hearing and learning a new word than I was upset about having to sit in a stroller.

"A place with lots of doctors and equipment to treat sick people." When I gave her another look of confusion, she laughed gently as if there was a joke only she was privy to before giving a lengthier description.

Oh, a hospital, I realised as she finished her description. When the implications of the word hit me, I narrowed my eyes at her and scanned her briefly for symptoms I recognised. Not seeing anything, I abandoned my place at the table and went up to her to get a better look. By the time I asked her to crouch down so I could feel the lymph nodes under her jaw, she was all but hysterical in her laughter.

"Not funny," I huffed and crossed my arms, trying to show my displeasure the best I can. Let me feel your damn lymph nodes woman.

That only made her laugh harder. "Oh Yume," she squeezed out when her laughter let up a bit, "you're so cute. I'm not sick Yume, we're not even going to the hospital for me."

This left me confused. I furrowed my brows and asked, "Why hospital then?"

"It's for you." The answer only added onto my confusion. For me? Was I sick then? I didn't feel sick. "Don't worry Yume, just a checkup," she said before carrying some of the dishes to the sink.

I moved to help her and before long I was all dressed up and sitting in the stroller enroute to our destination. Despite the extra time it would take us, I would still much rather walking myself instead of being pushed. However, my irritation didn't last long. I didn't have time to be upset, I was too preoccupied with marvelling at the massive trees that were abundant throughout the village.

No, massive wasn't an apt enough description, they were absolutely gargantuan. Easily a metre in diameter, some of them twice that. They had to be the largest in the world. Even more ridiculous than the size of the trees were their placement throughout the village.

Normally, when a tree was in the way of a building you would remove them during construction. Or if you wanted to keep them, replant them in a more convenient location — not that replanting trees this size would be an easy task. Regardless, the idea was that the trees would be secondary to the city plan.

However, in our village it was the opposite. The village was built around the placement of the trees. The roads and buildings would curve and curl around the trees. Sometimes, there were even awkward situations where the tree would be in the middle of the road. Once, I swore I saw a tree go right through a house.

How utterly bizarre.

It was more than just the size and placements of the trees that made so enraptured by my surroundings. It was the fact that I can now appreciate them unassisted. Everything was so vibrant, so clear, and all without a lens separating me from the rest of the world. It was beautiful and it never failed to bring a smile to my face.

As we travelled along one of the busier streets, every now and then I thought I would see a flash of shadow or feel the weight of a gaze. However, there would never be anything there when I checked.

This wasn't the first time this happened. When we would travel to the local market district for groceries, I would occasionally notice the much the same things. I've tried to find the source of it numerous times before, but it would always happen so quickly and never when I was prepared and looking for it.

The one time I thought I caught the perpetrator, it appeared to be a person crossing the street. But he didn't cross it like a normal person, no, he crossed it by jumping from one rooftop on one side of the street to the other.

How utterly ridiculous. I had quickly dismissed it as part of my eyes playing tricks on me. That was simply too great a distance to jump… right?

After the fifth time or so, If only for my own sanity, I was tempted to mark it all up to paranoia and bundle it all as a figment of my imagination. All things considered, it wasn't an unbelievable conclusion. The way the sunlight danced between the trees and leaves could easily fool you into thinking you saw something that wasn't there; however, something about this solution rubbed me the wrong way.

To my frustration, the frequency of it only increased as we moved closer to our destination. All the while, Okaa-san watched and laughed at my futile attempts to catch the supposed perpetrator.

We were deeper in the village now, approaching an area Okaa-san called the central market; as opposed to local market we usually went to for groceries that she dubbed 'the local civilian market'. The distinction was clear, this place was obviously much larger, more populated, and had a much larger selection. However, why the 'civilian' moniker was used as opposed to something else, I had no idea.

After another flash of shadow, one that left me particularly upset as I was so close to seeing what it was, she finally decided to take pity on me and address these strange shadows. "They're shinobi dear."

"Shinobi?"

"Yup," she responded as she pointed to a man wearing a headband and a strange green vest, "he's a shinobi." Pointing to a few more similarly dressed men and woman that I only just noticed. "They are all shinobi."

"And they make the strange shadows?" I asked, more confused than ever before. How did I only just notice such conspicuous looking people. Who were they and where did they all come from? And with so many of them, how did I not see more of them before today?

"Yes," she answered. "They make the shadows when they jump across buildings and tree branches," she said with a straight face, as if it were just another fact of life.

What? Was she pulling my leg? Seeing my disbelieving face, she let out a little laugh. "I'm not lying, look there," she said as she pointed at a rooftop down the road.

Almost as if it were on cue, one of them came barrelling across the rooftops. He moved faster than anyone I've ever seen before and each jump he made covered a stupendous amount of distance. Sure enough, he eventually jumped across the street, soaring through the air like superman. Almost as quick as he came, he disappeared from view, heading off towards who knows where.

What.

What in the bloody hell did I just witness?

Still not believing the sight my eyes were just beholden to, I rubbed them a little more aggressively than I should and gave the world around me another once over. There wasn't anything out of place. No signs of hallucination, no indication that this was some convoluted prank on a live reality show, everything remained much the same as before. This did not spell good things for my hope that what I just saw was fake.

Then, as if that wasn't convincing enough, the world decided now was the time to hammer the point home. One of the shinobi, who aside from her attire looked every bit the ordinary woman she should've been, shot up and jumped 20 metres straight up into the air to land on a rooftop.

My jaw just dropped.

This sent Okaa-san over the hill. Unable to contain her amusement any longer, she bowled over with laughter, clutching her sides. "Oh Yume, you're adorable."

Adorable? Adorable? She thinks this is adorable? I gave her my best unimpressed stare which, unfortunately, only served to send her into another fit of giggles.

She found this situation hilarious. Incredulity oozed out of my very being. Were we seeing the same thing? Did she not just witness the girl shoot up like a rocket into the air? It was impossible, a physical impossibility. The muscles in a humans' legs simply should not be capable of generating that much power. Even the most capable of athletes struggle to get over a metre and a half. She just did over 10 times with the ease of sipping tea.

Maybe if we were on the moon and she had some monster sized thighs, sure. But that was the moon, with gravity a sixth the intensity of earth's. That was why those astronomical leaps were called moonwalking and not earthwalking. With the strength of earth's gravity in play, what she just did was simply unfeasible.

Before I could even finish trying to comprehend the impossibility of the events I just witnessed, more shinobi displayed this superhuman ability. Running, jumping, dashing, they moved onto and across rooftops, each demonstrating unimaginable feats of speed and power.

Clearly, the world was revelling at my dismay. The absurdity of the circumstances sank in. Apparently, the preposterous was not nearly as unthinkable as I thought it should've been. I uttered the only words I possibly could given the circumstance, "How?"

Okaa-san opened her mouth and was about to start answering when the sound of an alarm pierced through the buzz of everyday life, cutting off whatever she was about to say. The siren resounded throughout the air, reminding me a little of those air-raid sirens you would hear in documentaries or film. It wasn't as loud as those, and there appeared to be quite a distance between each source, but it was no less ominous.

I felt worry and concern displace the bewilderment of earlier. My body twitched with the need to do something to address the situation. However, I had no idea what was going on. So instead of panicking and potentially putting us in a more compromising position, I watched Okaa-san and waited for instructions.

Her face was ashen, turning more and more pale with every blast of the siren. She quickly began moving towards one of the taller buildings nearby.

At the same time, activity around us began to pick up. People began trying to take shelter, most with concerned expressions and an air of panic around them. Their reactions only made the dread feel more real. As tempted as I was to question what was going on, I kept my mouth shut. Okaa-san appeared to have a plan and I didn't want to distract her.

I observed my surroundings with more interest, trying to piece together what was happening as best I could. The most interesting to see were the reactions of the shinobi. Although they also held the same air of concern as all the other people, they were remarkably more composed. They gathered in groups of three or four before hopping onto the rooftop and headed off to one direction or another.

We were approaching a taller building where a particularly large number of people were congregating when suddenly, the earth trembled. An earthquake then? I thought, trying my best to understand this distressing situation. It would explain the alarm and the terror, but there was something about the unease in the air that told a different story.

Another shake, and then another. Each one growing in magnitude before culminating in a resounding explosion that cut through the air. It was accompanied by the collapsing of a building.

All hell broke loose. What semblance of civility and calmness that might've remained warped into a frenzy, and the populace broke into a stampede. Chaos ensued, everyone scrambling and running for their lives.

We were no different. At first she jostled us quicker towards the building where we would presumably find shelter, but she must've judged we wouldn't make it in time so she broke away from the crowd. Abandoning the stroller in favour of carrying me, she ran as fast as she could away from the source of the tremors. The fear was palpable through her touch. Although she tucked my face into her shoulder which prevented me from seeing anything, I could hear perfectly fine.

In many ways, it only made everything worse. I could hear the panic, the hysteria, the screaming, but I had no way of knowing for sure what was going on. For many long seconds, that was my entire world. Then explosions and metal clashing against metal joined the fray.

The audio fidelity painted an ugly picture for me, and for the first time since this all began, genuine fear gripped my heart. The worst part was that I couldn't do anything about it. There was nothing I could possibly do to aside from rely on the woman carrying me to get us to safety.

I clutched her tighter, squeezed my eyes shut, and hoped we made it out safely.

She ran and ran. The explosions and sounds of fighting got louder and louder. Then a deafening roar erupted from right next to us. It flung her haphazardly into the air. I felt her hug me tighter, holding me close and curling her body around mine to protect me.

She hit the ground moments later with a heart wrenching crack and a scream of pain. She tumbled and rolled a few metres further, unable to stop the momentum that sent her flying in the first place. All the while, she cradled my head instead of her own, never once weakening her hold on me.

When she finally came to a stop, I just stayed nestled into her side. I was too scared to pry myself loose. Too scared of what I would see. Too scared that she'd traded her life for mine. Too scared I would be left alone in this strange place all alone with no one to keep me safe.

And then, I felt it. Her heartbeat. I pressed my ear a little closer to her chest, hoping, praying, it wasn't just my imagination. Ba-dup, ba-dup, it drummed, rhythmically, lively. It was at a quickened pace, but it showed no sign of letting up. No sign of it getting weaker.

I released the breath of air I didn't even know I was holding. She's alive.

Finally breaking out of my shock, I tried to peel her protective arms off of me. She fought back, refusing to let me go until I muttered that it was alright. That I'm safe.

Hesitantly, she withdrew her hold on me. Free from her grasp, light entered my eyes for the first time in what felt like forever, but must've only been a few minutes. Finally able to see again, I checked her over for injuries.

She was littered with cuts and bruises. There was a particularly nasty one on her shoulder where she must've landed on. But there was nothing life threatening, nothing that immediately required attention. Not unless she had a concussion. With a landing like that, it would be a miracle if she didn't have at least a small one.

Putting my face close to hers, I tried watching her pupils. However, she wasn't a willing patient. Instead of following my finger, she smiled at me. Smiled. Here she was, sent through the wringer, flung several metres in the air like some ragdoll, battered and bruised like a crash dummy without an ounce of concern for her life, and yet she still somehow had the audacity to smile?

She was insane. The lady clearly off her rockers. A concussion was the least of her worries. Who would smile in a circumstance like this?

A mom who knew she protected her child.

I hesitated, my breath hitched. But I persevered and pushed the feeling away. Don't get so attached. She's just being a mother figure, someone who takes care of you. She's not actually your mom.

I continued my test, this time convincing her to follow through with it.

No concussion.

She smiled again, with mirth this time. Clearly she found something about this situation amusing. I shook my head gently, but her smile was infectious, and I soon found a small one forming on my face as well.

Satisfied, I let out a sigh of relief.

She tried to get up, but she was slow to do so. Every attempt to move was accompanied by a lot of wincing and gritting of her teeth to hold in the pain. I tried my best to help her, but by the time she got herself to a sitting position, she gave up moving.

Without an alternative course of action, I settled down next to her. She tried to shoo me away, to run and hide in a safe location, but against my better judgement I stayed with her.

"Yume, please," she pled, concern and care laced every inch of her voice. "Please."

"I'm not leaving you."

"You're not, you're just going to hide for a bit," she urged, giving me another one of her characteristic smiles. "I'll be okay. Please, run. I'll be right behind you, alright?"

"No." I knew what she was doing, what she was trying to do. I wasn't going to let her, this wasn't going to be some scene in a movie where I left her to die while I escaped myself. And, to my surprise, I meant it. She was special now. She may not be my real mom, but you don't get to be the primary source of reassurance and comfort for someone for three years without being someone special to them.

For the first time since this ordeal began, frustration seeped into her expression. She was about to try and convince me to leave her behind again, but then she suddenly went still. Frustration was displaced by fear, colouring over all her features. Seeing that she was staring a little past me now, I spun around to catch a glimpse of what frightened her so.

There was a man there, wearing a road red attire with a brown vest. It reminded me of the shinobi of earlier, which became even more true when I saw the headband he also adorned. However, the symbol looked different. His aura, for lack of a better term, felt different. And, most of all, he was covered head to toe in a red liquid.

Blood.

My eyes widened. The courage from before left my body as terror took over. I wanted to scream or to start running, but before I could do something incriminating, the logical processors in my brain began whirling again. Don't make a scene. Don't make noise. Make yourself as small as possible and don't catch his attention. I was about to start enacting on it and hopefully getting Okaa-san to do the same when he noticed us.

Too late.

He finished running his knife like object through the throat of his current victim and began speeding towards us. I felt a tug from behind me as Okaa-san gripped my hand and pulled me behind her. She hovered protectively in front of me, putting herself between me and our attacker.

I winced, she was trying to be a human shield. The cold rational part of my brain understood why. He was too fast, we couldn't out run him. Our only chance of survival was to hide and that ship has long since sailed.

Two dozen metres, one dozen, half a dozen. I felt Okaa-san brace herself for impact, squeezing her eyes shut. But then suddenly, another one of those knife like objects appeared out of nowhere and lodged itself into his throat.

For a second, it was like he didn't even register the large metal object protruding out of his neck and he kept coming towards us. But then he came to a stop and raised one of his hands to his throat feeling for the foreign weapon. His hand lingered for a while, confusion and doubt entered his features. And then, his eyes glazed over, his mouth gurgled some blood, and he fell over.

Just like that, he was dead.

If the situation wasn't confusing before, it was now. I was still at a loss as to what just happened. It was so far beyond the realm of what I had become accustomed to. Did I just watch someone die?

Okaa-san, who somehow found the strength to stand in her attempt to protect me, sank to her knees in relief. Her arms sagged to her sides as she held herself and shivered, the tension seeping out of her body.

For a few seconds, I was much the same, frozen in shock and unable to comprehend the events that just unfolded. But a piercing scream shocked me out of it and the reality of the situation kicked in again.

We didn't have time to sit here feeling sorry for ourselves, we had to do something or it wouldn't be just a near death situation. We were going to die.

I gave her arm a tug, and that seemed to snap her out of her funk. She followed my lead and we huddled ourselves into the side of a large cement debris, trying to make ourselves small. It most definitely wasn't the best place to take shelter, but it was better than being out in the open. It was also the only thing close enough that Okaa-san could reach until she recovered from her injuries some more.

Its relative openness gave me a decent view into the middle of the street, but more importantly, the rooftops.

The scene that unfolded in front of me was like something out of a fantasy. People fought each other at breakneck speeds. For the most part, they looked like just a blur. The only times my eyes found definition in them was when they came to a standstill or for the brief pauses they took before leaping into action again.

The shock of that was beaten only when they started throwing what could only be magic at each other. Flashes of lightning arced through the air. Flamethrowers and balls of fire raced through the air wrecking havoc in its wake. Explosions of water and pillars of earth burst through the ground.

As the haze in my mind began to clear, I finally realised why Okaa-san had been so adamant on calling us civilians. At the time I thought the reason was self-evident. Despite its extravagant size and population, we lived in what Okaa-san insisted was a village, and so we were civilians of the village. It was so obvious, so straightforward, so unambiguous, I found her emphasis on the word civilian ridiculous

But now I understood. Why she was so resolute in making that distinction. Why we lived in the 'civilian district'. Why the local market was 'the local civilian market'. Why Otou-san's bakery was in the 'adjacent civilian market'.

Because we were civilians. Powerless, normal, regular 'ol people.

And shinobi, well, they were that.

They were the soldiers of whatever world I'd been reborn in, this obviously wasn't earth, and they weren't anything like the soldiers of earth. They moved at speeds far faster and with strength far greater than any person should be capable of. Muscles that should've been ripped to shreds with the exertion they were placing on them did not. They threw and caught weaponry with pin point accuracy achievable only in dreams.

They were superhuman, they defied conventional logic, and they wielded magic.

We watched, helpless, trying our best to stay quiet and not to catch their attention. Like mice in the realm of humans, you survived by tucking in your tail and staying out of their way.

As I watched longer, I noticed there were two sides to them. One of them wore brown vests with red pants and a one sleeved shirt. The same as the man with a knife lodged in his throat that lay just a few metres from where we hid. They were the other side, the invaders.

The enemy.

Then, there was our side. Our forces. They wore green vests and blue pants, like the shinobi we saw in the market before everything went to hell. Luckily they appeared to be the more numerous of the two.

The two military tore each other apart. More theatrics were thrown. Giant fireballs the size of a car raced through the air, blasting massive craters wherever they landed. A hail of sleeting sharp rocks pelted a building until nothing but rubble remained. And at one point, there was even a jet of water with the shape of a dragon and girth of a train that bulldozed everything on its way.

They wrought chaos and destruction wherever they touched. They toppled trees, collapsed stores, turned entire buildings into a raging inferno. The worst was the screams. The calls for help, pleas for assistance, the begging to be saved.

They went largely unanswered, the shinobi too preoccupied with trying to destroy each other to help the civilians caught in the crossfire. They weren't even wrong to do so, to turn their back meant death. However right it may have been, it didn't make the situation any better.

The devastation and death persisted, but slowly, our forces began to drive them back. The sounds of fighting dimmed, until eventually, it was only the crying that was left.

* * *

A/N

Thanks for reading the first chapter of Lines in the Sand. I hope you enjoyed what you saw.

I know the stairs bit had a lot of prose, a lot more than such a mundane situation should warrant, but I figured the contrast would be humorous.

Let me know what you think, your thoughts on my writing and otherwise.

\- Muffies


	3. Line 2: A Nightmare

Lines in the Sand

Arc 1 - A Shinobi

Line 2: A nightmare

I didn't notice when it was that Okaa-san was finally able to stand. Nor did I notice when it was that a young shinobi appeared beside us to converse with her. It was only when she called out my name that I snapped out of the haze that had descended over my mind.

"Yume, are you okay?" she questioned as she crouched in front of me and cupped my face with her hands. She caressed my cheek gently, "Are you still hurting anywhere?" she asked again, her smile was weak but no less comforting.

I stared back at her, my stare blank as the events of the last half hour played through my mind over and over again.

How could I be alright after witnessing _that_?

The adrenaline pumping through my veins has subsided, no longer powering the fight or flight response. Along with it went the hormone induced clarity. And without the aid of of the chemical, the full weight of the emotionally stressful event was now boring down on me.

It scared me out of my wits. It left me confused and lost. I wanted nothing more than to find a corner to cry in. To hide from the world until my sluggish mind finally sorted everything out. To disappear until I could face things again.

If I were alone, there wasn't a doubt in me that would have been exactly what I would have done. However, I wasn't alone. I had more to think about than just myself. There will be time for moping around later. But for now, there was someone who was worried about me and required assurance that I wasn't about to lose my mind. Even if I suspected I was.

"I'm okay," I lied, even managing to pair it with a reassuring smile. Or at least, my best attempt at one. It must've been anything but reassuring because she only looked more worried than before. Still, eventually, she returned my smile.

I took this opportunity to hug her. It was as much for her as it was for myself. The touch of another person helped to calm me down. We stayed like that for a while. My arms around her as she played gently with my hair.

She made no move to separate until I did. "All good now?" she asked me as she stood back up to her full height. I nodded in affirmation. "Yosh, let's resume our trip to the hospital," she exclaimed with an over exaggerated, boisterous smile. Despite the enthusiasm in her voice, I could tell just underneath the surface was a strong undercurrent of anxiety.

Her attempt to maintain a strong facade for me brought a genuine smile to my face. However, my expression slowly morphed into one of perplexity and incredulity.

Sensing my confusion, she patted my head and ruffled my hair. "The shinobi-san I was just speaking to informed me that they're succeeding in driving the Iwa forces back outside of Konoha. We'll be safer deeper in the village."

She led me by the hand and began walking towards the hospital. Another reason as to why we were still heading there immediately became clear. Her steps were laboured and accompanied by a gentle limp. A quick look on her face revealed the strain she was under and the effort she was putting in to not let her pain show.

She was still injured. I felt guilt pooling in my stomach. I'd forgotten how hurt she'd gotten trying to keep me safe.

A few dozen steps later, she paused. I felt another jolt of worry course through my veins. Did she need a break? Was it too painful for her after all?

To my relief, that didn't appear to be it. She stopped walking to look back in the direction of our home. No… Not home. The angle was a bit off.

Otou-san's bakery, the answer dawned on me, she was worried about him. I could feel the uncertainty in her decision now. She wanted to check in on him. To assuage her worries about his wellbeing and his about ours.

I gave her a small tug towards the path to the hospital.

There was naught we could do if we headed there. We couldn't contend with shinobi. Us being there wouldn't make him any safer, probably the opposite. It would put us back in danger and distract anyone who would otherwise be protecting the civilians there. All we could do is hope he found shelter and protection from the supernatural beings we called shinobi.

Plus, she needed the attention of a doctor as soon as possible.

Another tug later, we resumed our journey to the hospital.

Without anything to do now except walking, my mind finally wandered back to the most recent events. It explored the absurdity of what just transpired, of what it all meant, and even the tinge of familiarity that was starting to make itself known.

It was preposterous to think how any of this could possibly trigger such a reaction. Yet, this nagging sensation of familiarity remained. No matter how hard I tried to convince myself it was just my imagination, I just couldn't completely put it past me.

I was missing something. A key, some vital fact I needed to jump start my memories and remember just what was eliciting such a response. It was like having a word on the tip of your tongue.

It was right there. So close, yet so far.

We merged into a wide open street. Although we were still only about halfway there, the street was straight and had a lear avenue directly to our destination. For the first time in my life, there weren't any obstacle between me and the centre of the village.

It let me see further than ever before. The hospital, the government facilities, and the answer to that itch of familiarity. The answer as to why all was not as foreign as it should've been.

And it came in the form of a yellow-grey cliffside with three faces carved onto the side of it.

Oh.

_Lines in the Sand_

Both the trip to and the stay at the hospital was a blur. Although physically present, my mind was too preoccupied with the sudden revelation to focus on anything else.

It wasn't as if I could completely zone out there were too many tests for me to do so. Vaguely, I would recognise whenever Okaa-san or someone else spoke to me, and I would do my best to accomplish whatever task they wanted me to do. However, the meaning behind them didn't really register and the logic behind them were lost on me.

The world of Naruto? Really?

As if reincarnation or whatever this was wasn't bizarre enough on its own, but into a bloody fictional world as well? I couldn't even fathom where to begin.

I had hoped, _desperately_, that maybe just this part of my second life was a dream. If the events of the past half-day or so were part of some hunger induced nightmare, then I could still stomach it. The world could offer me this small mercy right?

I pinched myself several times, held my breath, attempted anything my mind could come up with to wake me up from this long-winded dream. But it was to no avail. I wasn't even afforded this small clemency.

The only reaction my actions solicited was worrying Okaa-san more and prompting her to ask the doctor to conduct more tests.

Part of me wanted to reprimand myself for not realising where I had reincarnated earlier. However, to be fair to myself, I really had no way of knowing.

My life until now was completely isolated from the characteristics of the Naruto world that would have helped me diagnose the world for what it was. Even if I had been constantly exposed to them, I doubt anything short of seeing the main character in all his orange glory or that mountain range would have joggle my memory.

After all, I was not immediately familiar with Naruto, having not watched or read it myself. My interactions with the story were limited to snippets and expositions from friends, references to it online and in pop culture, and memes.

Besides, who freaking wakes up and goes, 'Oh, I've been reborn in a _fictional_ world someone bloody made up'.

The clinically insane, that's who.

Even now, after witnessing some pretty condemning evidence to support the theory, it just sounded like a bad joke. A really, really poor one made in distaste by that one uncle you only tolerated because you were obligated to.

I huffed, almost snarling in displeasure at the thought of trying to digest how this all came to be. It earned me another concerned gaze from Okaa-san. Despite its poor track record of success, I gave her a sheepish smile to relieve her worries.

Nothing to see here, I wasn't losing my mind, not at all.

She took one look at my smile and nearly did a one eighty back to the hospital. It was only when I dragged her back in the direction of home and vocally protested my desire to return home that she relented.

As much as I wanted to whine and moan about my fate, I had better things to do. My scientific and inquisitive nature demanded me to find an explanation for the absurd situation; however, even that wasn't my primary concern. No matter how much my curiosity begged me.

No, the most important thing was to figure out what I was going to do now.

Presume that this really was the world of Naruto, the Narutoverse, what do I do? What information did I possess that could improve my lot in this life.

The answer was a big fat 'not much'. Maybe I could Naruto run my way out of this world and back into my own.

Hah.

On a more serious note, there were a few important points I do remember. The most pressing was that I distinctly remembered that Konoha was flattened.

Not burning down, not under attack like it just was, but straight up turned into a giant smoking crater.

Very appealing Stuff. Prime real estate really, everyone should live here.

Maybe it was the result of the war I would often hear about when the topic of Naruto was brought out. Or maybe I was wrong and Konoha was the safest place to be. For all I knew, everywhere else might've turned to ash.

Besides, Naruto lived here didn't he? Presumably the entire central cast did. In these types of stories, the protagonist would ultimate fix everything and there would be a happy ever after. All I had to do was stay out of the way and make sure I was one of the people left when he did his thing.

Whatever it may be, I didn't have enough information. I couldn't make an informed decision based on unreliable memories or a hope that the hero was going to save the day. I didn't even know if the events would unfold in the manner as was depicted in the story. It was a fictional story and this world may just bare an uncanny resemblance.

All I could do now was hedge my bets that there was time. Time for me to prepare, time for me to gather intelligence, and time for me to concoct a solution. Whether that solution was to relocate to a safer place until the story's plotline finishes or something else.

The issue at hand resolved for now, I started paying attention to my surroundings once more. I searched for landmarks I might recognise. There was a barber shop, a butcher, oh, and the fish vendor with the freshest fish in the whole market. My smile brightened a little at the sight of him. We were at the market closest to home.

Noticing the change in my behaviour, Okaa-san's face brightened. "Finally awake Yume?" she asked. There was an uncertainty in her voice, one that convinced me she still was still considering turning us around and going back to the hospital.

Whatever I was doing while I was out of it must've really worried her.

"Yup, sorry, was thinking," I answered as cheerfully as I could, not wanting to worry her further. She gave me that disbelieving parent look, one I was slowly becoming very accustomed to, but I just doubled down. "Shinobi people are crazy, really curious. Tell me more when at home?"

Her look didn't go away, but she didn't press me further. Perhaps the relief that I was just a little less weird than before was enough for her. Or she simply gave up on having a normal daughter. Probably the latter. Either way, I was thankful I was no longer under the microscope.

"Okay," she said as she led us closer to the fish stall and my eyes widened. Dare I hope? There was nothing better than some tasty fish to go with figuring out that my whole life is a literal lie.

"I'll tell you more while we eat salmon tonight."

Oh yes, I dare hope.

"Yay! Salmon, what is special?" I asked her, curious as to why we were having something that was usually reserved for celebrations.

"You mean to say, 'what is the occasion'," she laughed, "And the occasion being we didn't die today."

Amen to that.

_Lines in the Sand_

Something startled me awake, some ominous pressure that I couldn't quite describe. However, the moment my consciousness roused from its slumber, I immediately felt what.

Fear, hatred, malice.

It was everywhere. It was in the air, within the covers, inside my _lungs_. It came in waves so thick it was visible, tinting everything in a sinister red. It was smothering me, choking me, strangling the life out of me. It was like I was drowning, as if I were sinking underwater.

I clawed at my throat. Whatever this thing was, it was too heavy. I couldn't breathe. Changing strategies, I clutched my chest, squeezing it, pushing it, trying to kickstart my diaphragm and lungs again. But it wasn't working. Black spots blanketed my vision, my consciousness going hazy.

Breathe, I needed to breathe damn it.

I hammered my chest, again and again, and again. And then, like a dam breaking, a breath of fresh air entered my lungs. Except, it wasn't just fresh air, I also took in whatever was in the air. It was like poison, it burned my lungs. It was a searing pain so intense I swore someone was driving a knife through my chest.

My body protested, screaming at me to not do it again. I couldn't take another breath of air. Don't do it, don't do it, it cried. Whatever you do, don't ingest it, don't take it in. But I had to. I needed to breathe. If I didn't, death was certain.

So I took another giant gulp of air as forcefully as I could. I used all the willpower I could muster to force it down despite the howling objection of my body. And as a consequence, it made its opposition known. I hurled the contents of my stomach, the acid burning my throat.

It begged me not to do it again. Crying out to me to stop. What you're breathing in was foreign, invasive, malignant. Still, I gasped another breath, and I threw up once more.

But still, I was breathing. I was thinking. I was alive.

More gasping, more struggling, more choking. But no more vomiting. My body wasn't rejecting it as violently now. It was adapting, becoming accustomed to whatever it was that warranted such a reaction in the first place.

I didn't know if that was a good or a bad thing.

My breathing came in shallow, short breaths. More like puffing and panting than actual breathing. There wasn't much oxygen in my actions, but it was something. I'm still alive.

I didn't notice when, but I was crying now. I was crying, but I wasn't alone either. I was in warm, comforting arms. I was safe. I hugged him tighter, pulling myself closer into his arms.

Yes, I was in his arms so I was safe.

He carried me down the stairs. I heard more footsteps, another pair aside from his. Before I knew it, we were out the door. The harsh cool air that greeted me stung, but that wasn't the worst thing about being outside. Whatever was in the air that tried to poison me earlier felt even more concentrated.

But at the same time, something else was helping me. It was warm, comforting, and it gave me strength. It fought off the poisonous fog of sheer malice. My initial laboured breathing eased up a bit, and I no longer felt like I was dying.

They paused for a little bit. I heard them exchanged panicked whispers, gawking at something. Whatever they were staring at must've been monstrous, because the next moment, the earth rumbled.

It shook, convulsing in a way I didn't even think was possible. I felt one of the arms holding me let go, so I just clutched him tighter. When the shaking lessened, I dared to loosen my hold just a little and took a look around.

Otou-san was holding me like expected, his other arm steadying a very pregnant Okaa-san. It made sense why he let go of me with one arm now, she needed his help. Her balance was bad enough with a baby in her, the shaking would've knocked her over without his help

It was then that I saw it. The focus of their stares, their fear. It was the biggest thing I've ever laid eyes on. It was enormous, not on the scale of meagre sky rises or cruise liners, it was comparable to _mountains_. And surrounding it, coating it, was the same crimson miasma that threatened to drown me.

When Okaa-san felt steady enough again, we fled. "Let's go," Otou-san said, trying his best to calm us down. "The shelter is this way, we can get to safety there." He moved quickly, but he didn't run. Okaa-san couldn't keep up with him if he ran, so he settled for a fast walk. He kept one arm around her to keep her from falling, and another holding me.

There were ruins all around us, the remnants of what were once homes. Our entire neighbourhood was nearly flattened, there were only a couple cluster of houses here and there that still stood. Ours was one of them, but only just barely. Not even 30 metres from where our home stood was a paw shaped crater. A frightening reminder of what almost happened.

We were almost turned into pavement.

As we made our way through the devastated village, the product of the monster's rampage made itself apparent everywhere we looked. It wasn't just our homes. The candy maker's shop, the tailory with the old grandmother who would always wave at me, the fisher's stall. They were all levelled to the ground or in such a state of disrepair you could no longer recognise what it originally was.

If it were just some broken buildings, then perhaps everything would've been bearable. It could've been something you could stomach seeing.

But it wasn't.

Otou-san tried his best to shield me from it. He told me not to look, over and over, and positioned my eyes against his shoulders to prevent me from witnessing the carnage before us. Despite his best efforts though, I saw it clear as day. And even if I closed my eyes, I could smell it. The scent of blood heavy in the air. I could hear them. Screaming, calling, begging for help.

"My daughter's inside. Someone, rescue her, she's all I have left."

"My leg, my leg, I can't feel my leg."

"No! Honey, stay with me, open your eyes. Don't go, don't leave me all alone."

"My son," A man pleaded, hand gripping the ankle of Otou-san's leg. His own legs a mangled mess. "Just my son," he stared into our eyes, boring into our souls. "Please."

I could see the tears that trailed from my parents' faces. I could feel them on mine too. I could tell it was eating him on the inside, to make this choice. Asaki Kimaru was not the kind of man who would turn away when you asked for help. He was the type that was accused of being too nice. That wore his heart on a sleeve and did too much for too little.

But he was just a baker. A baker with a wife, a daughter, and another child on the way. And it was all he could do to keep us alive.

And so, he did the only thing he could do. He closed his eyes, turned his head, and shook him off. He ushered Okaa-san further forwards, and we kept going.

We moved further away from the monster, away from all the chaos. The buildings here were a little more steady. Less of them in total ruins. Whenever the fox took a step, the earth no longer shook with the same vigor that could knock a grown man off his feet.

"We're almost there," Otou-san breathed out in relief, barely audible above all the turmoil around us. "Just a little further, you can see it there." He pointed with the hand he was previously using to hold Okaa-san steady. "Behind that shop is the staircase leading down to the shelter," he said as he fixated his arm back around her.

It was an inconspicuous shop, with a green awning and beautiful décor. To the side of the store was an alley with a number of people congregating. They were lined up, slowly making their way to the shelter. There were also a handful of shinobi situated there. They guided and directed the civilians into the shelter in an orderly fashion.

We slowed down as we got closer, taking our time as we headed towards the back of the line.

We never made it.

One second, there it was. The tranquil scene of people lining up in hopes of reaching safety. The next, nothing.

Horror dawned on us as we took in the sight we had just witnessed. Okaa-san screamed while Otou-san dropped to his knees. We were so close, we were almost there. A few more metres and we would've joined the rest of the people there, a messy splat on the ground.

Hopefully, the people underground were safe. But the ones aboveground, the ones lining up, so close to being safe. Gone. Nothing more than collateral too. An angry swipe of the tail by a monster who likely hadn't even meant to.

I clung closer to Otou-san.

I could feel the horror radiating off of him. And slowly, that horror morphed into anger. I didn't know how I could feel it, but I did.

Despite his rage, he was the first to recover. "We need to keep going," he said, voice still trembling. I could feel his desire to comfort come off of him now. His inclination to be the rock, the pillar that steadied us. "There's another shelter further north of here. It's further than the one east but..." his voice trailed off. He turned his head back, watching the fox bat away the shinobi that were fighting it like flies. "It's better to walk a little further than to head in the direction of that… of that… that _monster_."

There was no reaction from beside us, no affirmation, no disagreement, nothing. He turned to face Okaa-san, and she just levelled him with a neutral look, bore of any of the turbulent emotions she must've been feeling inside.

He gave her a gentle shake, "we need to move." When she still didn't respond, he tried again with a little more force. "We need to move, _now_." He pleaded her with his eyes, urging her to not give up and to keep going.

Gradually, the life returned to her features. Slowly and hesitantly, she nodded. Then we were moving again.

The scenery around us steadily changed as we moved further from the fox. Storefronts and stalls decreased in frequency until it was mostly houses left. Then, those too began to fade. I didn't know how long we had been moving, but eventually another group of people came into view.

We arrived at the other shelter.

Otou-san didn't say anything this time. No cry of relief like before, nor any comforting words of encouragement. Maybe he was just tired, or perhaps he didn't want to bring up memories of what happened last time.

When it became our turn to descend down into the shelter, we just accepted the lit candle one of the shinobi handed us and walked through the hidden door built into one of the giant trees.

The stairs that led down into the shelter was shrouded by darkness, illuminated only by the candles each group of refugees were carrying. The steps were damp and some were even wearing away.

Otou-san would watch carefully as Okaa-san slowly descended the steps, an arm always ready to steady her if she needed it. Several times she wobbled dangerously, but she always stabilised herself quickly.

At the bottom of the stairs were more shinobi, younger this time. Most of them didn't have the green vests like the ones from before. They were denoted only as shinobi by the headband they would wear on various parts of their body. Genin.

We waited in a short line as one by one, they would lead the different groups of refugees to where they would wait in the shelter. The genin that led us had medium length brown hair and wore the shinobi headband as a bandana. He had tired looking eyes and a sword strapped to his hip.

"Please wait here," he said as we came to a stop. "We'll let you," he paused to cough, "know when it's safe to leave." Another cough. Was he sick?

"Okay," Otou-san answered as he finally put me onto the ground. "Thank you shinobi-san for your help." He bowed, deep and steady to show his genuine gratitude. I followed his example.

It wasn't stated, but I knew he was also including the ones that were outside. The ones fighting and trying their best to keep us safe from the demon.

The shinobi seemed to realise this too. He shifted a little awkwardly, not quite sure what to do. "No problem," he stumbled out and cleared his throat again. "Just doing what we can." He gave us another once over, before turning around and walking away to get the next pair of refugees.

The three of us tried to find a comfortable position to sit on the ground. But it quickly became apparent there was no such thing. The cold floor sapped the rest of our strength and energy away. The dampness only facilitated this more.

Abusing my childish rights, I climbed back into Otou-san's arms and settled myself against his chest. He didn't protest my actions, it made it warmer for him too.

Around us were other families in similar states of duress. Some of the more audacious were somehow capable of sleeping despite the situation we were in. Others were similar to us, huddled up in misery and waiting for the disaster to pass.

Then there were the ones that were crying. You didn't even have to listen to their wails to understand why. They lost someone.

Okaa-san was the first amongst us to fall asleep. She was nested in Otou-san's side and rested her head on his shoulder.

Otou-san on the other hand didn't even try to fall asleep. Despite how tired he indubitably was, his eyes were alert and observing our surroundings. He was watching out for us. He wanted to be ready in case anything happened. That was how he simply was.

As for myself, I wanted nothing more than to just drift off to sleep. I was overwhelmed and exhausted. I may not have done any of the running myself, but the events of tonight left me mentally and emotionally drained. There was something else too. I don't know how to quite describe it, but I felt like I used up a lot of energy.

However, no matter how much I craved it, sleep never came. Everytime I closed my eyes vivid imagery would flood my mind and shock me back awake.

The sensation of drowning in that poisonous miasma. The imprint of the giant paw shaped crater right next to our home. The swiping of the tail that claimed so many in front of me. The crying, the screaming, the pleas for help that would never come.

They haunted me.

Everytime my body jolted and shuddered from the realistic mental images Otou-san would give me a little squeeze. A little bit of reassurance to let me know he was there and we were safe now. They helped.

Slowly and steadily, my eyes closed for longer. Whenever my body shuddered awake, it was less violent with more darkness in between.

And as the hours passed, amidst the perpetual state of almost falling asleep and startling awake, the earth had stopped trembling. The monster was no longer on a rampage. The threat had finally passed. We really were safe now.

And as the weight quite literally lifted from the air, sleep claimed me.


	4. Line 3: A Family

Lines in the Sand

Arc 1 - A Shinobi

Line 3: A family

The last time I was here, I was too distracted to wallow in the familiarity of my environment. But now that I was more sound of mind, they stood out like a sore thumb.

The sterile air that smelled of antiseptics and sickness. The plain bleached walls made even more sickly looking by the excessively bright white lights that verged on blue. The dour mood and sombre atmosphere of patients and visitors who want to be anywhere but here.

It was amazing how similar hospitals were regardless of where you went.

I hated hospitals. For so long it served as my prison, a constant reminder of a fate I had no say in. For months, the four walls of my room were the only things I knew. It was so easy to get lost in what a hospital represented for me.

A place of anguish, of grief, death, and heartbreak.

But that wasn't the reason why I was here today.

"Yume-chan? Are you Asaki Yume-chan?" A nurse in white came up to where I sat in the lounge. Despite her clear exhaustion, the expression on her face was opposite to almost everyone else's in the vicinity. She was giddy, joyous even.

"Yes."

"Please follow me, your parents are ready to see you now." She led me down a few hallways until we reached an innocuous looking door that looked like any other. On the way here I could faintly hear grunting and screaming leak through the doorways.

"They're right in here," she gestured to the door and gave me a polite bow, one which I returned. She began to walk away but then turned back to say one more thing. "Oh and, congratulations."

I carefully and quietly entered the room, not wanting to disturb the occupants within. I stayed in the shadow of the doorway as I watched the people inside.

Okaa-san was holding a bundle of towels, beaming serenely at it. Despite the unimaginable pain she must've been in just moments prior, she was all smiles as she cooed at it. Her happiness completely out of place with the exhaustion that rimmed her eyes and the sweat that lined her face.

Otou-san was right by her side looking every bit as elated at she was. He preened at both of them and was proud like a textbook father would.

I have never felt more out of place than I was now. I was on the outside looking in on a picture perfect happy family. A strong mother, an overindulging father, and a child they could call their own. A real child, their real child.

Not me. I was the cuckoo in the sparrow's nest.

"She's beautiful," Otou-san murmured, hypnotised by the sight before him.

"She is," she agreed, angling the baby so he could get a better look at her. "Her sleeping face reminds me a little of you, "she giggled, "the dumb smile is a perfect match."

"What?" he exclaimed, sounding scandalised. "My smile is not dumb, it's handsome."

"Nope! Its goofy!"

He pouted a bit before breaking into a grin, "Well, even if I'm not handsome, you said she was beautiful. If we're a match then it must mean I'm beautiful too."

She laughed a while before muttering something about him being such a dork.

Their exchanges only made me feel even more uncomfortable. It was a private moment, I shouldn't intrude in on them. I turned around, ready to leave the room when Otou-san's voice stopped me. "Yume?"

I gulped, no running away now. Normal, act normal, I told myself.

"Sorry! You guys looked so happy, I didn't want to interrupt."

The expressions on their faces told me I said the wrong thing. Ah crap. Why am I so bad with words. "Uhm, I meant, you guys were celebrating and I thought I'd just wait a bit and uhm…" I fumbled. I was really messing this all up. "What I really mean is…"

"Oh Yume," Okaa-san laughed. "You're so silly. Shh, just come here and see you little sister."

Otou-san turned towards me and opened his arms. The smile on his face and his hold looked so inviting that I didn't realise I was involuntarily walking towards him until I felt his grip around me. "Up you go," he said as he picked me up and gently placed me on the bed beside Okaa-san and the baby.

Slowly and carefully as to not disturb the baby, I peered over the towel she was wrapped in. She was sleeping soundly, utterly oblivious to the celebration taking place around her.

Realistically speaking, she was an ugly little thing. The enlarged head that was far too big on a body that small, the reddened skin that looked like she had a few sun burns too many. She lacked just about any of the attributes you would typically find attractive in a person.

But for some inexplicable reason, I found myself agreeing with my parents. She was beautiful.

My hand reached out to touch her inviting, chubby little cheeks, but it stilled a couple inches from her face when I thought better about it. Was it proper to touch a baby so soon after birth? Was it safe? I didn't know but I reasoned it probably wasn't. Her skin was probably still raw and delicate and I didn't want to accidentally injure her.

Instead, I tilted my head towards my parents. "What is her name?" I asked. I had caught them talking about names a couple times before, but I didn't know what they had settled on.

Okaa-san shared a look with Otou-san and he nodded back with a smile. "Yanagi," she answered proudly. "Her name is Asaki Yanagi, spelt with the word for willow."

"Yanagi," I repeated as a whisper. From what I knew, it was a fairly unorthodox name, but it sounded cute. "I like it."

Something about watching her sleep enthralled me. It might've been her weird and mysterious beauty that the three of us agreed she contained. Or perhaps it was how soundly she slept, completely ignorant of the world surrounding her.

Whatever it was, it made me want to protect her. To shelter her from the brutality and heartlessness that you could find so easily in the world. Something that was compounded more so by the fact that we were in the Narutoverse.

But would I be able to? The monsters here were genuine. They far exceeded anything I could possibly hope to protect her from. Between the merciless ninjas capable of superhuman feats and demonic beasts that could flatten an entire city, I was just a girl. A girl with a bit of a head start.

Okaa-san, who'd been content with watching me interact with Yanagi until now interrupted my thoughts and asked, "What are you thinking about Yume?" Her voice was affectionate with a hint of her usual mirth.

Unprepared for the question, I just gave her a confused look.

She shared a knowing smile with Otou-san before answering, "I've been your mom for nearly five years now, I think I know when you're thinking about something." She bent forward and kissed me on the forehead. "Your brows always do this cute little furl."

Did I really? I looked towards Otou-san for confirmation and he held the same knowing smile Okaa-san had. "She's right dear. You also purse your lips a little bit. Kind of like this." He then did an exaggerated pouty thing that elicited some giggles from Okaa-san.

Busted, I guess. Do I share what is on my mind? Would it be too strange a thing for me to say?

"I don't know," I admitted, settling on playing it safe. "I am not sure what I am thinking."

"You don't want a sister?"

"No!" I exclaimed before wincing at how loud that came out. "No," I said again with a softer voice, still surprised by how vehemently I denied it. I turned back to Yanagi, worried I startled her awake with my shout just now.

To my relief, she showed no signs of rousing from her sleep.

"I like Yanagi. I mean, I don't know her very well but I am sure I would," I rambled, "she's cute and well, I don't know. I want to be a good sister I guess," I paused for a bit before saying in a quieter voice. "I guess maybe I'm just not just not sure I can be a good sister."

This time, it was Otou-san who reassured me. He reached out and gave me a pat on the head before gently running his fingers through my hair. "I'm sure you'll be a great sister."

"How do you know?"

"Because you've been a great daughter." He smiled, "I have confidence you'll be a great sister too."

I felt something in me break.

My breath hitched. Not now, I realised. I can't deal with this right now. I need some time alone to recollect myself.

I ducked my head so that they couldn't see my face and scrambled to get off the bed. I didn't get far before Otou-san caught me and held me to his chest. I struggled a bit but his hold was too tight so I gave up.

Seeing as I wasn't fighting him anymore, he turned me around and gave me a comforting hug. He rubbed circles around my back in a soothing manner. "Yume?" He asked, worry dripping from his voice. "Is something wrong? Did I say something wrong?"

I shook my head against his shirt. No, he didn't do or say anything wrong. I couldn't have him thinking that he did. He was a great dad, and Okaa-san… Kaa-chan, she was a great mom.

No, there wasn't a thing wrong with them. Only me.

"Please don't cry Yume. What's wrong? You can tell me."

I'm ruining the moment. They should be celebrating, basking in the moment of a new life coming into the world. They should be commemorating the occasion of adding a new member to the family. Not consoling an adult impersonating their daughter.

I backed off his chest, slow and steady so that he didn't think I was going to run again. Deflect, deny, and lie. You're alright. There's nothing wrong.

"I'm not crying, see!" I smiled, showing him my tearless face. I knew he didn't buy it, it was too sudden a change in behaviour. However, spontaneous mood swings were an allowance given to children. I just have to double down. "I guess I just wanted a hug," I beamed, stretching my smile as wide as I could.

He shared a bewildered look with Kaa-chan, obviously a bit perplexed and at a loss as to what to do. That was fine, confusion was good. Spread their focus, make them divert their attention away from worrying about me. Confusion wasn't concern.

And then, while they're distracted, steer it back to where I want it. Salvage the situation.

"I'm still not sure how to be a big sister," I said as I steadily backed out of his hug. "But I'll try my best."

Smile.

"I'll be the bestest big sister in the world."

_Lines in the Sand_

For the dozenth time that day, I closed my eyes and steadied my breathing. With each long measured breath, I emptied out more and more of my mind.

Feeling ready, I gently placed my hand on the tree just in front of me. Then I let my senses take over my being. I felt the way the small warm patches of sun formed as it trickled past the swaying leaves. I took in the earthy fresh scent of the air as it gently brushed past my skin. I memorized the way the rough and hard bark of the tree pressed back against my palm and fingers.

For a while, I let these sensations encapsulate my whole world. As I did so, a familiar warmth inside my body steadily made itself known. It was so subtle that if I weren't searching for it, I wouldn't even have known it was there. I _hadn't_ known it was there, not for nearly 5 years of my life.

But something changed during the fox attack. I could feel something bubbling just underneath the surface. It was still faint, but as I shut out more of the world around me, it became more and more prominent.

It was a different feeling from body warmth. For one, you couldn't actually feel temperature underneath your skin because there were no thermoreceptors there. Another was that it wasn't a temperature kind of warmth. I only referred it to a warmth as I had no better term to describe the feeling.

When it became sufficiently strong enough, I tried to pull on it and push it to my hand. It wasn't actually pulling or pushing, more like molding and directing it to where I wanted. It resisted me, fought off my attempts to accumulate it into my hand.

I continued to try and coax it there, and slowly, I felt my efforts paying off. More of that indescribable warmth cumulated into my hand. When it hit a critical mass, I shifted my focus from channeling it into my hand to getting it do something.

Stick, I thought. Stick to the tree. Glue, adhere, attach.

As I fumbled with getting it to do what I wanted, I felt my concentration waning. It was already a massive strain just to keep that undercurrent of energy in my hand, to do anything more was pushing the limits of my current capabilities.

It was now or never. I couldn't hold it any longer. Before my concentration slipped entirely, I slowly removed my hand from the bark. I was hoping that even if I couldn't feel the energy doing something, that maybe it still was.

However, my hand left the bark with no less resistance than if I hadn't spent the last few minutes trying to force that mysterious energy to my hand. It truly was nothing. Again.

I let out an exhausted sigh and plopped myself onto the ground next to the tree. It was draining me with every attempt, mentally and physically. This was probably the last time I could try today. The last time I stubbornly kept going after being this tired, I nearly blanked out.

Chakra, what a fleeting concept.

Some time after I discovered I was in the Narutoverse a year and a half ago, I convinced Okaa-san to take me to the library. The goal was to learn more about this world and the superhuman entity known as shinobi. The search quickly led to an energy known as Chakra.

Supposedly, this was what made the impossible possible. It was what enabled shinobi to move at supersonic speeds, what let them surpass the constraints on the human body, and what let them cast magic.

Well, they were called jutsu.

Naturally, the first thing I did after uncovering the existence of this mysterious entity was to try and learn all I could about it. However, the texts on the topic available at the library were extremely limited. Grade school level at best.

It was described as a culmination of physical and spiritual energies which could be molded to form jutsu or channeled in the body to augment it. There was also mention of chakra coils, what the two energies were believed to be, and some common jutsu. However, all of it was cursory information.

There was no depth, no details. Everything was glossed over, probably by design. If information on something like this became rudimentary, the foundations which held society together would unravel. So the ones with power put it behind a wall to ensure only those they screened would have access to it.

A conclusion substantiated further when I was informed by the librarian that further information on the topic was available only to those who were training to become shinobi or were already shinobi. There were even tiers to the level of information you could access, with higher ranked ninjas having more.

And so, if I wanted to learn more, I had to figure it for myself. And I _do_ want to know more. A mysterious energy unique to the Narutoverse capable of manipulating what I thought I knew of the laws of physics? How could I resist.

Hence why I am now following an exercise described in one of the books that was said to promote the growth of your chakra control. Well, saying that the book 'described' the exercise was a stretch. It quite literally said, 'mold your chakra, channel it to your hands, and make it stick to things'.

What amazing detail and fabulous instruction. Truly, I am at awe.

"Trying to bring down the tree again little missy?" A jolly voice called out from the distance. "It's all well an' good but, whatcha going to do when the tree falls down on your house," he laughed as he made his way down the street with grocery bags in hand.

"I am not trying to bring down tree," I huffed with an offended, haughty tone. However the smile on my face betrayed the offense I was trying to portray. I did a quick stretch before hurrying over to offer my help with the bags.

Tachibana Ryoki was a senior man in his late sixties that lived next door. He pretended to be grumpy and gruff, but everyone in the neighbourhood knew he had a heart of gold.

He handed me a bag, the smallest and lightest of the four he carried. "Do you have time today?" he asked as we made our way over to his house. I nodded excitedly with a skip in my step. "Do you want to come over for some mochi? It's been a while since you've been over."

It really had been a long time. His late wife used to invite me over to treat me to handmade candy and snacks at every opportunity. When he lost her, he became despondent for months. This was the first time since the incident that I saw him smiling.

"I'd love to."

When the door opened he hesitated at the door for a while. As if he were waiting for something, for someone. Unsure of what to do, I hesitated a bit too. Eventually, I decided to take the opportunity to help bring his groceries in. However, before I could even the lift the bags he had put down to unlock the door, he stopped me. "Go get comfortable little missy," he smiled a little sadly, "I'll have the mochi over right away." His smile got sadder. "Its red bean."

The house was a mirror of my own, differentiated only by the choice in furniture. As I made my way over to his living room corner, I noticed a new addition to the room that wasn't there the last time I was over.

A legged Go board rested beside his low dining table. There was a game in progress on top of it, about 40 or 50 moves in. Beside it was an opened book, depicting a finished game with the stones numbered in the order they were played. A closer glance revealed it was the same game.

He's studying a game, I realised.

Seeing the familiar board game for the first time in years, I studied the position on the board closer. It was still very early into the match. If the game he was studying was played by professionals, then there would be nuances involved that were far beyond the level I could understand. However, I did know enough to form an educated opinion on the game state.

White looked like he had a comfortable lead. A lot of potential for territory even if they're not confirmed yet. Black was playing very solid; however, in a game like this that wasn't necessarily a good thing. Solid was safer, stronger, but it was also slower. It was reminiscent of the way you would play as black before Komi was invented.

"Ah, the game of Go caught your attention did it?" he said as he carried a plate of mochi over. He sat down on the other side of the board and put the mochi onto the table. "Did your parents teach you how to play?"

"No," I answered. It technically wasn't a lie, they didn't teach me how to play.

"I see, I see," he said as he scratched his head a little. "I used to play Tsumi a lot." A wistful smile grew on his face. "It's been a while since I've touched it, but, well… I figured she wouldn't want me moping all day doing nothing."

He started clearing the stones from the board. "Playing Go helps me remember her. She always was better than me. Little missy, do you want to learn? I'll teach you."

Did I? I wondered as I watched him sort the stones. I enjoyed the game; however, I'd have to raise the level of my play steadily as to not catch suspicion. Just like in chess or shogi, you don't suddenly become good at the game because you're smart. As with every game in the world, if you wanted to be good, you'd have to practice and play. Intelligence only better equipped you to learn and improve.

I wasn't looking forward to 'relearning' the game. Especially if I'd have to fumble around and make beginner mistakes to play the part. More importantly, I have enough on my plate. Learning and experimenting with chakra, my ambitions with figuring out how I came to be here, _staying alive_.

No, I didn't have time to waste on pretending to be a beginner. Maybe when I'm older I could lie and say I picked it up somewhere. It was much less suspicious to have random skillsets when you're 20 than when you're 4 and a half.

I readied a smile, prepared to deny my interest, but I stopped when I saw the expression on his face.

It was a familiar expression, one I've seen before. The eagerness to teach and share something you enjoyed. The hope that the person will like it just as much as you do. The desire to have someone keep you company. The desperation for an excuse to not be alone.

For a few seconds, another person overlayed on top of him.

When I blinked, it was gone. Come to think about it, it was also him that taught me Go.

I looked back to the board. Already, it was filled with puzzles and examples you would use to teach a beginner the basics. Well, now that he's got it all set up, I couldn't say no now right?

Besides, Tsumi told me it was actually him that made the candy and sweets. He only pawned it off to her to give it to me because he was too shy to do it himself.

"I'd love to learn."

His widening smile already made it worth it.

"Okay, so we take turns playing a stone, like this…."

_Lines in the Sand_

"Time to open your presents Yume!" Kaa-chan singsonged, ushering me towards the three wrapped gifts laden next to the stairs.

"But, but there's still some salmon left!" I protested. It was a lie, she knew as well as I did I couldn't eat another bite. However, I had to do it for the spirit of it. It was part of my identity now.

"You ate half the fish!" she laughed as she gently guided me to the presents. "You need to leave some for you dad. He's already a weakling. If you eat all his food he won't be able to hold you anymore."

"Hey! I resent that!" he huffed across the table. "Yume can eat as much as she wants, I'll be able to lift her no matter what," he said before flexing his arm for emphasis.

Ignoring his outburst, I gave Kaa-chan a devastated look. "You're right," I mock gasped. "He was struggling with the bag of rice earlier. Maybe it's already too late." I followed it up by pretending to sob onto her shoulder.

"It's okay dear. Even if he can't pick you up anymore, at least Ojii-san can." She patted my back, pretending to console me.

"Ryoki-san, my wife and daughter are bullying me again," he complained in a dejected tone.

"Hah!" Ryoki guffawed, "If you think this is bad, soon you'll have another daughter joining in. Then you'll understand real terror. Take it from someone who knows."

"I'm doomed."

I laughed at the exchange and finished making my way over to the gifts. It would be the first time I opened gifts in this life. Although we have celebrated birthdays before, it was usually a very modest affair. Happy wishes, a little more affection than usual, and a slightly more extravagant dinner.

I thought it would be the same this year; however, apparently the fifth birthday was a milestone. And so, they're pulling out all the stops. Salmon, a few pieces of sushi, and presents.

"Open mine first," Ryoki said with a smirk, "It's the big one."

"Okay," I answered as I crouched down next to it.

I took my time with the wrapping paper, careful not to tear it. "Little missy, just tear it," he laughed, "I want to still be alive when you see what I got you."

I stuck my tongue at him, still refusing to tear it, but I did try and work a little faster. Inside the box, I found a legged Go board with two fancy looking Go bowls rested atop it.

My eyes widened at the sight. Not because he got me a Go set, I had my suspicions when I saw the size of the box, but from the quality of it.

"You're getting really good at the game now," he remarked as I took out the Go bowls. "It was about time you got a set of your own." When he saw me struggle to get the Go board out, he laughed and gave me a hand. "Go on little missy. try it out."

If it wasn't confirmed before, feeling the stones in my hand did. They were made from slate and clamshell, a material reserved for expensive stones.

I placed several stones down in a rudimentary opening game pattern, each one making a very satisfying _klak_ sound. Expensive wood too.

Tou-chan must've noticed it too because when I got up to hug Ryoki to thank him for the gift, he was looking a lot more nervous. "Uhm, Ryoki-san, that's not Kaya is it?"

"It is," he laughed.

"That's too much! You didn't have to!"

"Ah, but I wanted to," he smiled as he waved off Tou-chan's concerns. "I see the little missy like my own granddaughter. Sure, a cheaper set could've worked just fine, but Yume here deserves the best." I hugged him a little tighter and he gave my head an affectionate pat. "Besides, I'm serious when I say Yume here is a prodigy, consider this a small investment for the future Meijin."

Tou-chan still looked unconvinced. I didn't blame him. Short of the house itself, it was easily the most expensive thing in our home now. Ryoki just laughed it off again, "Don't be so tense, let an old man spend his money."

"Thanks Ojii-chan. I love it. I'll make sure to take care of it as best I can."

"I know you will," he said as he gave me another head pat. "Go on now, open your other gifts," he dismissed casually as if the gift he gave wasn't worth tens of thousands of ryō.

"Looks like my gift is next," Okaa-chan said as she gestured to the small, neatly wrapped rectangular box. Unwrapping it revealed a jewelry box. Suddenly having an awful premonition for what it was, my eyes darted to her hair. To my dismay, what I was searching for wasn't there.

She couldn't have, could she?

Hesitantly, I opened the box, dreading what I would find inside. Sure enough, the exact thing I was searching for was inside the box. A silver ornamental Kanzashi with three small, pink cherry blossom flowers.

She did.

Moisture crept up my eyes, blurring my vision. I got up and dived into her arms. "Are you sure?" I asked, my voice unsteady. "It means so much to you."

She held me gently, combing my hair softly with one of her hands. "And that is exactly why I want to give it to you."

The hairpin was something her mom gave to her. It was one of the last things she had to remember her mom by. She loved it. She wore it at every opportunity. I couldn't believe she was willing to part with something so special.

Thank you, Kaa-chan." I backed out of her embrace a little, blinking back the tears. Turning around and presenting my back to her, I asked, "Help me put it on?"

"Of course."

She began to pull my hair into an elegant bun. I revelled at the feeling of her touch. It was so soothing and comforting. I could feel her kindness in her fingers, her love.

When she finished, I turned around and gave her my best smile. "How do I look?"

"Lovely." She caressed my cheek affectionately. Her own eyes were moist. "It looks wonderful on you."

"Thanks, Kaa-chan." I gave her another hug. "I'll treasure it always."

We stayed like that for another minute, not separating until Tou-chan finished his 9x9 blitz game with Ryoki.

"Looks like it's just my gift left huh?" he said awkwardly while scratching his chin. "I kind of wish mine was first now. It doesn't really measure up to the other two."

"Tou-chan," I said fondly, "I'm sure it's amazing."

His gift was the most messily wrapped of the three with wrinkles and bits and pieces sticking out of it. It just added to the experience though, it was just like him to wrap a gift like this.

Hidden underneath it all was a picture frame with a photo of the four of us inside. The only one we've ever taken because cameras were rare and a photographer's time expensive. Nagi was all bundled up, sleeping peacefully in Kaa-chan's arms while Tou-chan smiled with his goofy grin. I was in the middle, holding both their hands.

What captured my attention more than the photo itself was the wooden picture frame. It was handcrafted, that was for certain. It had all my favourite things carefully carved into the side of it. Go stones, fish, cats, and the moon. Interspaced between them were delicately carved flowers.

What made it so special wasn't the beauty nor craftmanshift of the frame. Realistically, it had none of those things. Some things were disproportionate, some lines weren't straight, the curves weren't smooth and had jagged turns. There wouldn't be a shop on the planet who'd dare sell something so obviously made by an amateur.

No, what made it special was the person who made it. A glance at Tou-chan's fingers confirmed it. A lot of fresh bandages and scars from the cuts and scrapes that closed up.

All of Tou-chan's disappearances and late nights suddenly made a lot more sense. Why he had been acting a little sheepish and shady the past months.

The number of scars seemed to suggest this wasn't his first and only attempt at the frame either. There were probably dozens, each one a little better than the last until he ran out of time and had to present me with something. It explained the rushed wrapping too.

I traced the grooves of the frame with my fingers as a torrent of emotions started to overwhelm me. I felt tears begin to form and trail down my cheeks.

How many nights did he slave away carving the frame?

Then as I shifted the picture slightly, the light caught the front glass of the photo and flashed a reflection. Kaa-chan and Tou-chan sitting together, looking at me with loving eyes. Little Yanagi next to the table, sleeping away. Ryoki giving me a wide smile. And me, with my new hairpin right next to them all.

I was here, I was one of them.

The torrent of emotions turned into a flood. Unable to contain them any longer, my tears transformed into sniffing and sobbing. I pulled the frame close to my chest.

"Sorry Yume, I knew I should've gotten you something better."

I heard a soft smack and an "idiot, that's not it" behind me. It normally would've made me laugh but it only served to make me cry harder.

After some whispering, I felt his strong arms wrap around my body from behind me. He pulled me into his lap and tucked my head under his chin. "Yume, don't cry. What's wrong? Did you want a different gift?"

I shook my head. "No." I cradled the picture tighter. "I love it."

"Really?"

"Yes."

"I'm glad." He let out a relieved sigh.

For so long, I've ran away from the truth. Whenever it came up, I would deflect or find some way to rationalise it. Anything I could so that so that I didn't have to acknowledge it.

But it was undeniable now. They cared for me. Not just because I was their daughter, but because I was Yume. For all of my faults, my irregular level of autonomy, my strange quirks and weirdness, they found a place in their hearts for me.

It showed in every word they've said, in every action they've taken. Every hug, every smile, every joke, every laugh.

They loved me for me.

And it was time I reciprocated.

Oh I've always liked them, there was no denying that. They've been nothing short of amazing to me since the beginning. They were special. However, I always made sure there was a distance. A distance they're closing, a distance they've closed.

Sometime during these last five years, they've become more than just wonderful people who took care of me. They've become family.

I held out because it felt like a betrayal. Like I was replacing my old family with my new one. But I'm not. I'm just letting new people into my life. Two people who deserve it. Two people who have done more than just earn that right.

Hey mom… dad… this is okay right? These artificial barriers I've put up, it's okay to take them down now right? What would you say to me? Would you be mad? Would you be sad?

Would you be proud of me?

I miss you.

"Mom, dad, I love you."

A/N

I couldn't quite put into words the exact emotions and feelings I wanted to convey in that last scene. Hopefully, the intent transferred well enough.

This was a bit of a slower chapter. There were some themes and ideas I wanted to prepare and foreshadow for the future as they will become important in Yume's development. There were also some things that needed addressing before moving forward.

Hopefully you guys enjoyed it. Until next time

— Muffies


	5. Line 4: A Promise

Lines in the Sand

Arc 1 - A Shinobi

Line 4: A Promise

I clutched Mom's hand tighter as the ridiculously massive front gates of Konoha came into view. From an engineering perspective, the amount of force required to simply open and close them should've made such a design an unreasonable one. Not to mention the burden it must've placed on the hinges. There simply wasn't any practical reason for them to be so big.

However, such aspects seemed to matter little to shinobi. From what I've gathered thus far, Konoha was something akin to an enormous mercenary organisation. And what better to advertise your might or to inspire awe amongst potential clientele than needlessly large things?

Just another part of their sausage waving contest they bore with their competition.

I blew a tuft of hair out of my face and directed my attention to the congregation of people that gathered in the large clearing just before the gates. They numbered about 50 to 70, or so I estimated. It was difficult to gauge more accurately as many of them were hidden from sight by carriages, carts, and the horses that pulled them.

"Let's see," Ryoki muttered, breaking me out of my musings. "Tanjiro said he'd be on the left side." He started to lead the five of us through the crowd. "Ah, there he is," he said as he began taking off towards two carriages that had a blue roof.

"Oi! Tanjiro! How are ya doing young man!" he called out.

A tall, tanned man wearing a star hat turned around. "Old man Ryoki," he said, smile blooming on his face when he recognised who called out to him. "It's so good to see you!" When they closed the distance, they gave each other a hug and a pat on the back. "I was afraid you wouldn't be able to make it this year."

"Nonsense, nonsense. You know I wouldn't miss this for the world. Even if… Well. She would want me to come anyways."

Tanjiro donned a more sombre look. "You have my condolences, I can't imagine how hard losing her might've been for you. Tsumi was... she was a fabulous woman, always too nice for her own good. I'm sorry I wasn't around when it…" his voice trailed off as he adopted a pained expression. Then he shook his head before continuing. "Look, if you need anything, and I mean _anything_, let me know. I'll do my best to give you a hand."

"Young man, even if you were here, there wouldn't have been anything you could do."

"I still wish I could've done something. I owe you that, I owe Tsumi that. Let me."

"Hah, that's why you're giving us a lift to Ibusuki now aren't you?" Ryoki said as he gave Tanjiro a clap on the shoulder.

"It doesn't count, we do this every year." Tanjiro said as he shook his head. "Anyways," his eyes lingered to the four of us, "Why don't you introduce me to the family behind you? I didn't know you had another child. I thought you and Tsumi only had two daughters."

"We did! They're my neighbours. The boy here," he gave dad a pat on the shoulder, "is Asaki Kimaru. His wife Miyako, little Yanagi, and the little girlie here is the Go prodigy Yume." I blushed at the introduction.

"I am Yatsuki Tanjiro, it's a pleasure to meet you all," he said before giving us a bow which we returned. He gestured to one of his carriages, "There's about 10 minutes before the caravan departs, I suggest you guys get loaded up. Other than that, feel free to do what you want until it is time."

We weren't bringing much so getting our belongings onto the carriage didn't take long. Pretty soon, we were all loaded up and ready to go.

Just after Dad finished helping me onto the carriage, Tanjiro came around the back and started to work some of the latches. "We'll pass through customs and leave Konoha in just a bit," he announced, "get comfy because it'll be a bumpy ride."

He flipped over a back panel similar to that of a pickup truck and secured it into place. It was about half a metre tall, serving as a guard rail to prevent his good from sliding out the carriage. Well, in this case, it kept us in.

"Sounds good!" Dad answered. "Thank you again for giving us this ride for free."

"It's no problem. I owe Ryoki a lot favours, it's time I repaid them," he said as he made his way back to the front of the carriage into the driver seat with Ryoki.

The carriage lurched forwards and I immediately wished I had some sort of cushion. When he said it would be bumpy, I didn't think it would be _this_ bumpy. The carriage moved slowly, stopping every few metres or so as we were presumably lining up with the other merchants to get through customs.

Not seeing anything interesting from the back, I scrambled up and made my way to the front of the carriage. Thankfully, there weren't many boxes loaded onto this carriage and they were all stacked to the sides. It left me with a clear avenue to the front where the raised platform for the carriage drivers sat.

"Little missy, got curious came up to get a look did you?" Ryoki laughed and reached back to give me a head pat. He also scooted over a bit so that I had a better view.

"Yup!"

"Well, there's not much to see here either," Tanjiro answered. "At least not yet. When we are outside Konoha, I'll see if we can be in the back of the provision so that you can see more than just horses and carriages."

"Thank you!" I beamed at him, earning an amused smile. "Are we travelling together with all these people?" I asked the question that has been plaguing my mind since I saw the large crowd of people.

"We are," he answered, "merchant caravans like us usually travel in groups so we can pitch together enough for shinobi escorts. It's too dangerous without them, and too expensive to hire them on your own. This is one of the bigger groups, but it should be okay."

"I see, thank you!"

As we got closer to the gate and the crowd thinned out a bit, I noticed a number of booths that lined up the path leading out the gate. We stopped next to one of them and a shinobi greeted us, "Name and registration information please," said the gruff looking shinobi.

"I'm Yatsuki Tanjiro from Kamado's Tannery." Tanjiro said as he got off and handed the shinobi a scroll. "I should have scheduled a departure for today. It is for two carriages, four horses, and seven people.

"Thank you," said the shinobi as he began looking through some scrolls. Every now and then, he would look up to take a headcount of something, before going back to the scrolls. About 30 seconds later, he gave Tanjiro a nod. "Alright, everything looks good and it all checks out. You're a regular so I'm not going to give you too much trouble. Stay safe out there."

"Thank you Shinobi-san," Tanjiro responded, taking the outstretched scroll and returning onto the carriage. Soon the familiar feeling of the carriage lurching forward began again. It didn't take long before the entire caravan started making its way to Ibusuki.

True to his word, once we were outside of Konoha, he positioned our carriage to the tail end of the convoy. I really should thank him again because the view really was impressive.

I hate to admit it, but despite all the grief I gave the shinobi earlier about the unreasonably large gates, seeing them from the outside like this made them look grand. Especially with the bustling village and the Konoha mountain as the backdrop.

As I continued to admire the scenery, a kid about 9 years of age came into view. Well, perhaps I shouldn't think of him as a child because the headband he wrote on his upper arm denoted him as shinobi.

He made for a surreal sight. Not only did he keep pace with the carriage with ease, he also had a sword as long as he was tall strapped to his side. Even if the sword had been a toy, which I was absolutely certain it was not, the serious and alert expression on his face wasn't something you should find on someone so young.

I didn't think I was fooling anyone by looking away from him whenever he caught me staring, but I couldn't help it. He was an enigma, and I was sufficiently intrigued.

The more I observed him, the more I realised he wasn't as calm and composed as he first appeared to be. His eyes were twitchy, and his hands kept reaching for his blade whenever he heard a noise.

At first, I thought it was akin to a veteran's edge; however, I soon realised he was jittery because he was nervous.

Was he new to the field? It would make a lot of sense given his age. For so long I've thought of shinobi as the cold, merciless killers I'd come to expect of them. However, even shinobi had to start somewhere right?

Maybe I could exploit that and gather some information about the world and chakra from talking to him.

After a particularly loud rustling of leaves that made him jump, I decided to talk to him. It was against my best judgement and probably a mistake — something about a cat being too curious — but I couldn't resist.

"What's your name?" I called out. It must've surprised him because all he returned was a confused stare. I didn't even have to look behind me to know my family was doing the same. "I'm Yume. What's your name?" I tried again.

He narrowed his eyes, and I suppressed a nervous gulp. Okay, it was a bad idea after all. Abort, abort, mission critical.

Then he actually answered. "I'm Gekkō Hibiki."

"Nice to meet you Gekkō-san," I returned, trying not to let my panic show. Okay, you have his attention, time to try a casual conversation. "How long have you been a shinobi?"

He hesitated again, but he didn't display any other behaviour that would suggest he was against further conversation. "I just recently graduated."

He didn't sound irritated either, a good sign. "How has being a shinobi been like?" I asked, pushing my luck further.

It might've been a step too far as he snapped at me, "Why are you talking to me?"

The tone made me wince, but he didn't show any other signs of aggression. Still safe. "I'm just curious," I answered somewhat honestly. "If you don't want to talk, that's okay."

He narrowed his eyes again and gave me a strange look as if he were trying to figure me out. I wilted a little under his scrutinising gaze. It probably only lasted about 30 seconds, but it felt much longer than that.

I wasn't sure what kind of conclusion he might've reached, but then he suddenly gave me an understanding nod. He dropped his cold and distanced demeanor from before and smiled, catching me off guard. "I guess it wouldn't be so bad to talk a little," he said in a much friendlier tone.

He started walking a little faster and closed the distance between us so that we could talk more comfortably. I wasn't sure what caused the change, but I wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth. Once he was about a metre or two behind the carriage, he answered my question from earlier. "Anyways, being a shinobi is fun I guess."

"Fun?" I echoed, my brows furrowing in genuine confusion.

"Yeah, it's pretty fun," he said with a shrug, "sometimes, it's kind of lame like our previous mission, but for the most part it's been fun."

I'd been expecting a lot of different descriptors when I asked the question. Things like honour, pride, duty, even cool. But for him to describe a profession that was the equivalent to being military personnel as fun or lame?

Yeah, I was not expecting that.

"Can you tell me about missions?" I asked, changing the type of questions I was asking. After all, my goal was to gather information, not learn about his life.

"No problem," he said with a grin, completely at ease now. "So each mission has a rank that denotes its difficulty. Our current one is a C-rank." He scratched his cheek a little. "It's actually my first time doing a C-rank. Until now we've been stuck with D-ranks."

"So are D-ranks guarding smaller convoys?"

"Ah… no. Not quite," he looked a little upset as he said this. "D-ranks are really more like glorified chores. Picking weeds, transporting construction equipment, watching dogs. Our last one was cleaning garbage out of a river," he said kind of disgusted.

"That's a big jump, from walking dogs to guarding so many people."

"Yeah…" he sighed before walking closer. "Can you keep a secret Yume-chan? You'll learn when you get into the academy, but this isn't supposed to be common knowledge."

"I'm great at secrets," I answered. His latest statement left so many questions, but I had to handle this one thing at a time.

He walked a little closer to me so that he could speak quieter. "Konoha has been short staffed. The war, the kyuubi attack, we even lost our Hokage. We don't have enough shinobi." He looked left and right nervously. "I don't think I was even supposed to be able to graduate to become genin so early, but they're promoting everyone these days because we need more shinobi."

What.

"Even this C-rank. For a caravan this size, there'd normally be a few teams guarding it, or maybe a team of jounin, but they can't spare the people," he looked quite embarrassed as he was saying this. "Remember, this is a secret Yume-chan."

I gulped nervously as I processed the information I just learned. Holding back my panic as best I could, I squeezed out an okay to appease my promise of keeping things under wraps. My answer seemed to satisfy him as he backed up into normal talking distance again.

While my willpower ran overtime trying to keep my emotions contained, the logical processors in my brain were short circuiting. I couldn't believe it. They were just letting kids become shinobi willy nilly. And, if sending under qualified personnel into the field wasn't bad enough, they weren't even manning them appropriately.

God, this was even more of a mess than I imagined.

Suddenly, his jumpy behaviour from earlier made a lot more sense.

Perhaps he recognised my unease, because he tried to comfort me next. "Don't worry, you'll be safe." He smiled. "I'll protect you, no matter what. Plus my sensei is a Hyūga jonin. Nothing will happen under his watch."

Although I appreciated his effort to console me, I hadn't a clue in the world as to how that information was meant to be reassuring. I wasn't even sure why he gave such condemning information to me. However, whatever it was, there wasn't a thing I could do to improve my situation even after learning this new information. It was far too late to turn back to Konoha and I wasn't about to earn the ire of a shinobi by lying about keeping a secret.

All I could do was trust his word.

It wasn't as if the situation would improve by ruminating over the information. All it served to do is terrify me further. Remembering my original goal, I probed for more.

"Gekkō-san," I broke the lull that had descended on us, "could you tell me about chakra?"

"Yeah sure! But what do you want to know? There's a lot to chakra," he answered.

"Uhm… How about how you learned to use it?" I asked. My foray into learning more about chakra had been at an impasse for months now. Not only have I not found any more material to learn more about the subject from, my progress on harnessing my own has stalled. I've been able to feel and reach for it easier now, or at least I think chakra was what I was feeling, but because I was unable to do anything with it, I couldn't conduct any experiments to understand the nature of it better.

"So it starts with a lot of meditation and stuff to feel you chakra, you know how it is," he said dismissively as if it were common knowledge. I felt my eye twitch from the tone in which he said it. No, no I did not know how it was. "The first major step is the leaf sticking exercise I guess," he continued in the same tone.

"Leaf sticking?" I asked, wanting more clarification. That did sound remarkably close to what I've been attempting thus far. Maybe the books I were reading weren't completely useless.

"Yup, leaf sticking you don't know what it is?" he asked in a perplexed manner. His audacity to be confused by my confusion only frustrated me further. Naturally, I tried to not let any of that show when I shook my head. "Huh, that's strange. Here, let me show you."

He jumped over 10 metres into the air effortlessly and snatched a leaf from the tree before I could even finish whipping my head up to catch sight of him. He then somersaulted in midair to kick off a tree branch before landing in a spot the exact same distance from the carriage as earlier. To finish it all off, he proceeded walking again like he hadn't just demonstrated an impossible feat of dexterity and acrobatics. "So the goal is to stick the leaf to a part of your body," he continued right where he left off without missing a beat.

My jaw dropped. Any lingering thoughts or doubts I had that he was anything remotely like a regular kid just went out the window. It just hammered home the point of what shinobi were.

He placed the leaf onto his forehead and it stayed there like it was glued on. He even shook his head a few times to demonstrate it really was stuck there and not some sort of trick. "Try removing it," he said to me as he walked closer so that I could reach it without falling off.

Sure enough, I was unable to peel the leaf off without ripping it.

"Pretty cool right?" he said with a smirk, "as you get better, you do cooler things."

"Yeah! How did you do that?" There wasn't a need to add extra enthusiasm to my response. It really was impressive.

"Well, you channel your chakra to your forehead," he answered simplistically. I felt my eye twitch at the simple explanation.

"And it just sticks?" I asked, hoping to pry more information out of him. There was no way that it was this simple. There had to be more.

"Well, not quite." he answered, confirming my suspicion. "It's a little difficult to explain. You'll learn this in more detail at the academy. So uhm, in our body, we have these systems of pathways that chakra is constantly flowing through."

"Like blood?"

"Yeah! Like blood!" he said kind of excited. "So when we say we channel chakra to a specific body part, what we're really doing is increasing the flow of chakra down a specific set of pathways so we have access to more chakra at the place we want.

"However, just directing more chakra to a spot isn't enough. To actually make things stick, we use our chakra to kind of pull the thing towards us."

"But it's in your body, how do you pull something outside when it is in you?"

"Right, so even though the chakra pathways are how it travels in our body, there are points where the chakra can leave. So first you push the chakra out of your skin then you pull it back at the spot where the leaf is to make it stick."

"Wait, but if you're pushing out chakra, won't that push the leaf away?"

"It does! Here, let me show you." He pointed at the leaf that was still on his head. A second later, it not only launched from his head, it kind of shredded itself too. "Oops, too much. Let me get a new leaf."

He then repeated the process of grabbing a fresh lead from a tree, returning before I could so much as blink.

He continued right on with his explanation. "So to prevent that, you kind of push chakra out in a wide area around the leaf, but pull it back only where the leaf is. If the pulling force is greater than the pushing force, it will stick. People that are really good controlling chakra can push it exactly around the leaf and be very efficient.

"It's a balance though. Too much push, and you saw what happened. Too much pull, you also shred the leaf. Here, it's probably a little advanced for your age, but you try!"

As tempted as I was, and it really was tempting, I wasn't exactly keen on demonstrating shinobi-like skills in front of Mom. She wasn't exactly a fan of them, and it wasn't difficult to understand why. I was already pushing it by talking to him. "Uhm, I've never tried to use chakra before," I lied.

"Really?" he asked, genuinely confused by my answer. When I nodded, he gave me a look like he didn't believe what he was hearing. "Huh, that's strange. Usually clan kids start training with chakra really early. I started when I was 5."

"Clan kids?"

If he looked confused before, he was downright shocked now. "You don't come from a shinobi family?" he blurted out with wide eyes.

"No, my parents are civilians. They're right behind me." I answered in an unimpressed tone.

"I thought they were retainers," he admitted with a sheepish smile while shaking his head. "Oh man, I thought you were a clan kid for sure, it's why I started talking to you."

So that was why he was so forthcoming with information, he thought I was one of them. "Why did you think that?" I asked, unsure how I gave the impression I was anything but a civilian.

"You're smart," he said, earning a disbelieving look from me. At least he had the modesty to look a little embarrassed when he realised what he implied. "My bad, I didn't mean it that way. It's the way you talk, the way you behave. It just reminded me so much of those prodigy kids clans always boast about," he explained. "Are you interested though? Will you go to the academy?"

It was that term again. "Academy?" I asked.

"It's where you train to become shinobi."

I shook my head. "No, I'm not interested."

"Really?" he asked in an intrigued tone. "But you were asking about missions and chakra and stuff."

"Just a passing curiosity," I answered. I wasn't even lying, I was just underplaying the magnitude of my curiosity. "I'm an academic, not a fighter."

My response made him laugh. "An academic huh." I narrowed my eyes at him, what was so funny? "Sorry sorry, it's just that you really do sound like one of those prodigious clan kids. It's a shame you don't want to be a shinobi, I think you would've been a really good one."

Wanting to change the topic, I asked a different question. "Could you tell me how jutsu's work?"

He smiled, still clearly amused. "Sure Yume-chan, anything for the little academic."

_Lines in the Sand_

I melted into a puddle onto the tatami matts, not caring how embarrassing it looked. I couldn't remember the last time I felt this relaxed.

I heard Mom start snickering behind me so I made my movements even more dramatic for her amusement. "Looks like someone enjoyed the onsen," she remarked while hiding another snicker behind her hand.

"I never want to leave," I murmured softly, "the next time I'm getting in, I'm not coming out."

"Nagi, do you hear that? Your sister chose the onsen over you," she cooed at Yanagi. Yanagi, not understanding the meaning of the words, just gurgled happy sounds back at Mom.

"That's not true! I'll take her with me!"

"Nagi, do you hear that? Your sister wants to drown you," she twisted my words jokingly with a smug grin.

"Mommm," I whined, "Stop bullying me." She started laughing again as I pouted at her.

As her laughter subsided, her expression turned more serious. "I didn't want to say anything earlier because you looked like you were having fun and Gekkō-san appeared nice enough, but generally, it's not a good idea to talk to shinobi."

"I know," I admitted, "but he was just a kid! And I was curious."

"You're always curious," she smiled at me and gave me a knowing look. "And I love that about you Yume," she brushed my hair gently, "but you have to understand, shinobi _are_ dangerous. I don't want you to get hurt. Gekkō-san was a kind person, but not every shinobi is. Even if they look like children, they're not _just_ children. They're trained killers."

"I understand Mom," I replied with a fond smile. I understood perhaps more than she may have realised. I took a risk today. It was a calculated risk, sure, he was paid to protect us so he couldn't hurt us, but it didn't mean I couldn't have accidentally earned his ire and 'disappeared'. He was more than capable of doing so. "I'll be smarter about who I talk to."

She smiled again and kissed me on the forehead. "That's all I want."

She went to check on the luggage, and I directed my attention back to playing with Yanagi.

A few minutes later, two sets of footsteps entered the room. "Having fun little missy?" Ryoki chuckled as he and Dad made themselves known.

"Yup! Nagi-chan is so cute," I said as I covered my face with my hands again. Peeking through the gaps in my fingers, I saw a very confused and lost Yanagi. I hid for another 10 seconds or so before showing my face and shouting out, "Peek-a-boo!"

She bursted into a bubbly laughter which was joined by some deeper bellows from Ryoki and Dad. As she made happy noises, she started reaching for my fingers so I let her pull on them. When she brought them close to her face, I started tickling her cheeks which just made her vivacious laughter louder.

She's too cute. It would be such a sad day for the world when she learns of object permanence. A true tragedy.

"Care to join an old man for a game of Go?" Ryoki asked a minute later when Mom separated Yanagi from me to feed her. "I brought a travel set."

No longer having anything else to do, I readily agreed.

As we settled down to play the game, Dad came around to watch. I'd actually played a few games with dad before, but the last one was over a month ago. "Wait, you don't give her a handicap?" he asked, confusing marring his features as we started the game.

"The little missy doesn't need it anymore," Ryoki guffawed in his usual jolly manner. "Hasn't needed it for a week now." When Dad gave him a disbelieving look, he just laughed again. "I'm serious, here, why don't you take over and play this game." He scooted over to give Dad room.

I blushed again at the praise. You would think that with how often I heard it, I would be accustomed to it by now. However, I don't think I ever would. Especially when I know that the praise was entirely unwarranted. Perhaps it would've been a more intelligent maneuvre to slow down my rate of 'improvement'; however, holding back was killing me.

As Dad took over, the game quickly descended into a scrappy fighting style game that he and I favoured.

Halfway through the game, rumbustious giggling broke me out of my concentration. I looked over and saw Mom trying to get Nagi to do a funny little dance thing. It was adorable watching Nagi waving her hands around.

In front of me, Dad was still furrowing his brows as he tried to figure out how to best answer my latest move. Next to him, Ryoki was rubbing his temples. Whether that was because he was also thinking about the next moves or because he was frustrated by how we were bastardising the elegant game of Go, I wasn't sure.

I closed my eyes and basked in the comfortable atmosphere. This was nice. Having fun, going on trips, enjoying the little things.

A smile grew on my face. I hope that these moments will last forever.

_Lines in the Sand_

"Are we there yet?" I whined as Ryoki and I hiked up the hillside. I would normally disparage complaining in such a petty manner as I should be above such childish behaviour; however, I was absolutely _exhausted_ and my muscles were sore. I was well beyond the point where I cared how I appeared to others anymore.

"Almost there," Ryoki responded with the dreaded answer that haunted every kid's nightmares, causing me to audibly groan. This elicited him to do his patented jolly laugh, but even that wasn't as full as it usually was since he was quite tired and out of breath himself. "I mean it, we're really close now," he said after he finished laughing at my misery. "It's just around that bend there." He pointed about 200 metres in the distance to an area where the trees looked like they opened up.

As we approached the destination, all my complaints and protests from earlier left me. My jaw dropped as I got closer and closer to the apex of the mountain we were on.

The trees slowly gave way and the sky opened up in front of us, revealing an endless expanse of blue. Mountains and hills of lush, vibrant green dotted the distance. A little closer were neat fields of plentiful crops that led all the way into the nearby was the town of Ibusuki.

The sight was surreal. It left me breathless, and searching for words to explain what I was seeing.

"This is beautiful," I whispered when I finally found my words again.

"Isn't it?" Ryoki said with a serene smile as he hobbled over to an outcrop of rocks and sat down. "Are you hungry little missy? We still haven't eaten lunch yet."

I nodded eagerly before making my way over to him and finding a seat for myself. As I made myself comfortable on the rock, he took off his bag and rummaged through it for the onigiri the Ryokan packaged for us. Knowing my preferences, he handed me the salmon one before taking the beef one for himself.

I gave him a grateful smile which prompted him to laugh and pat my head. As we started to eat, silence descended upon us.

At first, I didn't know why I felt so uncomfortable. You'd think eating some of my favourite foods and enjoying a beautiful sight would be relaxing; however, there was something that just felt so wrong about the situation.

Without the distraction of hiking, it didn't take too long to realise what. He was being uncharacteristically quiet. In fact, he rarely spoke the entire time we travelled up the hillside.

The thought made me frown, and I started watching him from the corner of my eye. Even when he finished his onigiri, he continued to stare out into the distance in silence.

He was deep in thought about something, but I didn't know what.

The silence extended for another 15 or 20 minutes, broken only when I heard him start sniffing. I felt a sense of apprehension and unease built in the pit of my stomach. What do I do? I wondered as I watched him restlessly. Do I interrupt?

Just what was he seeing to make him feel like this?

The formation of another tear made the decision for me. Reaching forwards, I cupped one of his hands between the two of mine.

This seemed to snap him out of his funk. He blinked his eyes in surprise, probably forgetting I was even here until just now. Slowly, he turned his head around until his tear filled eyes found mine. Apparently, the sight of me only made him more confused.

There was a moment where comprehension seemed to dawn on him and understanding returned to his features. He gave me a thankful look before wiping his eyes and returned his gaze back to the distance.

For a second, I thought he was just going to lose himself to his thoughts again, but then he started speaking.

"Tsumi and I travelled everywhere together," he said as he began his tale. "From the high mountains of Kumo to the sandy deserts of Suna. I can still remember all our trips like they were yesterday." A grin returned to his face as he closed his eyes. "There was nowhere we didn't want to go and nothing we were afraid to try. We were young and invincible."

He got up and started walking towards a tree in the distance, gesturing for me to follow him. "But no matter where we went, our favourite place to travel was still here." He started chuckling and pointed to a spot near the cliff. "I proposed to her right there. I'd planned for months for it to be at this amazing resort by the sea, music playing and a wonderful dinner. But then, we were here, and the way the sun illuminated her features made the moment so perfect, so right."

We were nearing the tree now. My eyes widened as I realised there were tallies etched onto the side of the tree. More than 50 of them. "When we got older and couldn't travel as much, we still came here every year," he said with a pained voice and moist eyes. His fingers started tracing the engravings on the tree. "I can't believe last year was our last."

I watched awkwardly as he started sobbing while slowly going over each and every one of the tallies. He paused for an achingly long time whenever he got to a new tally, probably reliving the memories of each one.

I wanted to comfort him; however, I didn't know what to say or what to do. I didn't want to blunder and make it worse. Why was I so useless in situations like these? As I was debating what to do, he started talking again.

"I'm the reason she's dead. I killed her."

"What?" I blurted out, unable to hold my voice back.

He gave me a lonely smile and ruffled my hair. "On that night, I said I wanted red bean mochi. The story sounds so silly, I know. But I was exhausted, and I really wanted it. However, we didn't have any red bean. And so, she offered to get some from a friend down the street…" his voice trailed off and he wiped his eyes again. "If I'd just said no, waited another day, she would still be here right now."

"I traded her life away for a damn snack," he laughed depreciatively. "For fucking red beans."

"You couldn't have known," I argued, not liking where his mind was at. "Nobody could've predicted what happened that night."

"I know," he responded in a defeated tone and closed his eyes. "I know, but I can't help it. It just keeps playing in my head over and over again. All it would take is one little change, and she would still be here."

"You can't think that way," I said as I wrapped my arms around him in a hug. "You can't live if you keep thinking like that. She wouldn't want you to think like this either."

"I know," he repeated. "I really do Yume. It's just… It's hard not to. Something so small." He closed his eyes, taking a deep breath to calm himself. He resumed tracing over the tallies. "I miss her so much."

I hugged him tighter.

As the minutes ticked by, I felt his breathing continue to calm and his tears slowed down.

"You know Yume, I never did thank you properly did I?"

"For what?" I asked, genuinely surprised by the sudden question that came out of nowhere.

"For playing Go with me," he answered. The answer only made me more confused. He laughed, ruffling my hair even more. "On that day, I know you were about to say no. You only changed your mind when you saw how lonely I was."

My jaw dropped for the second time today. "No need to look so surprised you know?" he said fondly with a shake of his head. "At first, I thought I was just imagining things. Attributing logic and reason to your actions where there were none. But it didn't take long to realise just how aware of your actions you truly were."

He started chuckling quietly. "You know Yume, sometimes I can't help but feel like you're a tiny adult." He chuckles grew a little louder. "An adult in the body of a child."

His chuckles continued for a while before, he started shaking head. "Oh what am I thinking, I must be going senile faster than I thought."

I kept steady, not wanting him to realise just how nervous I was. He was hitting a little too close to home.

He wiped the remaining traces of tears from his eyes. "Alright! No more of that sad stuff. Come on little missy, let's enjoy our time here." I gave him a dubious look which made him smile wryly. He peeled me off of him and crouched down in front of me, looking me in the eye. "Really, I'll be fine. No need to be so worried."

He cleared some of my messy hair out of my face. "Listen well okay? Sad times, they come and go. They happen even to the best of us. Your parents, me, even you will experience them at some point in your life. When they happen, they will tear you down. You might feel like you've hit rock bottom, like nothing in the world matters anymore.

"But that's okay. Don't let it define you. It doesn't matter how you fall, it's all about how you get back up." He gave me another bright smile. "You live only once Yume, promise me you will live it to its fullest. Promise me that Yume."

"Okay, I promise."

"Good," he said as he stood back up. "How about we start heading back? We don't want to miss dinner. We're having sushi tonight."

"Sushi?" My eyes started shining. I could really use it after such a heavy conversation. "Will there be tuna and salmon?"

"Oh yeah! For sure. Tuna, salmon, snapper, squid, we're getting the full course tonight." He bursted into laughter as I started bouncing with every step. "Oh little missy, you really love seafood don't you?"

"Yup!"

* * *

A/N

Happy Lunar New Years guys!

I originally wanted to cover a lot more in this chapter; however, it kept growing and growing and the chapter length started getting unwieldy so I split it. I hope you all enjoy!


	6. Line 5: A Promise (part 2)

Lines in the Sand

Arc 1 - A Shinobi

Line 5: A Promise (part 2)

The moment that Tanjiro lowered the rear panel, I quickly hopped out of the carriage and started stretching. My eagerness to get off so quickly resulted in a couple friendly chuckles from behind me. Tanjiro just gave me an amused look before commenting, "Eager to get out aren't you?"

"I'm sore," I explained truthfully, pulling stiff muscles and rubbing the spots that ached. I even considered massaging my butt because that was where I was the most sore, but that would've been too unsightly to do in public, even for me.

Until now, I've never realised how uncomfortable carriage rides truly were. Without any form of suspension or rubber tires for the wheels, you really felt each and every bump. The roads we travelled on only further compounded the issue. Unlike the even, paved roads you'd drive a car on, these were made of patted down dirt and they were littered with rocks and branches.

And believe me when I say they really made their presence known. Still, I suppose it was more comfortable than horseback.

We were making a pit stop at a clearing about halfway back to Konoha because the horses required some time to rest. It also served as a lunch break as we left in the morning and it was already noon.

After sorting out most of the kinks in my body, I scanned my surroundings for my target. I'd been wanting to speak to him the entire day, but I haven't found an opportunity to. It took a little searching because of all the carriages and people that were also part of this caravan, but eventually I spotted him on the far side of the clearing.

I ran up to Mom and gave her gentle tug on the sleeve to get her attention. "Can I go speak with Gekkō-san after we eat?" I asked, making sure to pair it with a sweet smile.

She gave me an uneasy look. "I don't know Yume," she placated, "I don't think it's a good idea."

"Please?" I begged again, "You know Gekkō-san is really nice. I won't be in any danger with him."

"I really don't think you should," she said again still unconvinced. Despite denying me, it wasn't a hard no just yet. The tone of her voice suggested there was still an opportunity to change her mind. It looks like it was time I busted out my new secret weapon, a recently learned skill I've only just added to my arsenal.

Taking a half step closer to her, I tugged her sleeve again and opened my eyes as wide as I could. "Please Mom? Pretty please with a dango on top?"

"Ugh," she groaned, turning away from me. "Don't pretend I don't know you're doing that on purpose."

"Please?" I begged again with another gentle tug. I turned my doe-like eyes up another level.

Making the mistake of looking at me again, her willpower began to wilt. "Okay, okay. You win, stop it with those eyes." She made an exaggerated motion of shielding her eyes as if she was looking at something too bright. "Just, please, stay safe. Don't do anything dangerous."

"Thanks Mom! You're the best!" I exclaimed and tackled her into a hug. She huffed and gave me an aggressive pat on the head. Contrary to her contrived attempt to appear upset, she was adorning jovial smile on her face.

"Neither you nor Kimura-chan can deny the little missy can ya?" Ryoki laughed as he came up to us. "Well, I don't blame ya. I can't either when she gets like that."

I gave the two of them an impish grin before pretending to whistle as innocently as I could. You would think that because I was mentally an adult, I should be above playing up my childish appearances to get what I want.

I wasn't.

Ryoki rummaged through his bag and produced a pair of onigiri. He handed me one as he spoke to Mom, "I'll look after the little missy here. Make sure she doesn't get into trouble."

After Mom gave him a thankful nod, he gave me a gentle push on the back. "Go on, lead us to your friend," he urged.

Receiving their permission to walk as I eat, I started munching on the onigiri while leading us over to where I caught sight of Hibiki earlier. As we passed by the numerous carriages and carts, I was reminded once again just how many people we were travelling with.

And how little people were responsible for the protection of so many.

I pushed the negative thoughts plaguing my mind and focused on finding Hibiki. When I finally spotted him near the treelines, I quickly scarfed down the rest of my lunch and rushed over. "Gekkō-san!" I called out with a wave when I was about a dozen metres away.

"Ah, Yume-chan!" he greeted back, halting his conversation with his companion. "I didn't see you around so I didn't think you were coming back in this caravan."

"We were just stuck in the middle this time," I answered a bit dejectedly.

"I see," he said with an understanding nod. "That's too bad. Did you enjoy your trip to the onsen?"

"Yup!" I exclaimed with perhaps a bit too much vigour as I was practically bouncing on my feet. I felt a blush form on my face and tried to tone down my enthusiasm. "I never wanted to leave," I said a bit longingly, "but all good things come to an end I guess."

Before he could reply, the girl next to him interrupted with a cough into her hand. "Ahem. Are you going to introduce me to your little friend here?" she asked with a strange inflection in her tone.

I gulped nervously and took a timid half step back. It wasn't that I was shy, but she unnerved me a little. I couldn't quite place it, but there was something about how she talked and the look she gave me. It wasn't malicious or in a way that made me fear for my safety, but I did feel in danger of a different sort.

"Oops! Sorry!" Hibiki laughed a little sheepishly while scratching his cheek, completely oblivious to my inner dilemma. "Yume-chan, meet my teammate, Nara Kanami," he said as he gestured to her. "Nami, this is Yume-chan."

She enclosed in on my personal space and crouched so that she was more level with me. "Yume-chan, it's so nice to meet you!" she said as her grin turned a little predatory.

Feeling even more apprehensive, I took another half step back and squeaked out a flustered, "likewise."

That turned out to be a mistake.

"Oh my God, you are so cute!" she gushed as she closed the distance and captured me into a hug. I tried to escape and fight her off, but my paltry attempts were no match for her enthusiasm. Much to my dismay, after her overly passionate hug, she started squishing my cheeks. "You're so tiny and adorable!"

Unable to save myself from this humiliation on my own, I looked towards Hibiki and Ryoki — who was watching a distance away — for help. I gave them my best deer in headlight eyes and mouthed silently, 'help me.' Much to my chagrin, neither of them saw fit to come to my rescue and started laughing instead.

The traitors.

After any dignity I may have had left was sufficiently extinguished, buried, and given a funeral, she cradled me from behind and rested her head on top of mine. "Can I keep her?" she asked Ryoki who finally made himself known to her. "I want to keep her."

"While I'm personally okay with it, I promised her parents I'd return her after this," Ryoki chuckled.

"Aww, that's too bad."

Somehow, even though I couldn't see her face, I just _knew_ she was wearing a pleased grin. On my part, I simply kept glaring at Ryoki and Hibiki who sacrificed me to Kanami for their own amusement.

I will not forget this, and I will get my revenge. Just you wait.

"I should get started on patrolling the perimeter like Sensei asked," she sighed, dropping her playful manner. "Yume-chaannn," she whined, "play with me when I return." And then it was back.

After rubbing her cheek into my hair one last time, she finally released me. I hastily retreated behind Ryoki's legs and stuck out my tongue at her.

This only amused her further and her smile widened. Fearing that incited her to give me another hug, I let out a scared squeak and hid myself further. Thankfully, she just gave Hibiki a mock salute and disappeared into the tree tops.

The threat to my virtue gone and remembering who left me to the shark in the first place, I detached from Ryoki and returned to glaring at them. This sent them into another fit of laughter.

Hibiki was the first to stop. "Sorry Yume-chan, Nami just really likes cute things. I guess she found you irresistible. She means no harm, promise."

I hmphed and crossed my arms. "You owe me salmon," I declared with a mock angry turn away from him.

"Okay, okay," he laughed, "when we return to Konoha I'll treat you to some sushi. So, what did you want to talk about?" His grin turned a little smug, "Or, knowing you, what did you want to ask me about?"

Dropping my act, I gave him an eager smile, "You promised you would show me some Kenjutsu!"

"Oh right, I did. Let me find something to cut." He looked around a bit before walking deeper into the woods, gesturing for us to follow him. After he found a tree branch about a foot in diameter, he propped it up with a few others. As he created his makeshift target, Ryoki and I found a spot a safe distance away to watch from.

"This is called crescent slash," he announced as he settled into a somewhat low stance with his hand on his sword about a metre away from his target.

Katana, I reminded myself, he called it a katana.

He withdrew the blade out of its sheathe a fraction of a centimetre such that just the barest hint of silver shined through. Lowering his stance a bit further, he tensed his grip on the handle. Then, with a flash of silver, he was already sheathing it again.

Wait, what?

I blinked a few times as I tried to process what just happened. Did he already cut it? I wondered as I shifted my gaze to the tree branch. And sure enough, the top half was sliding off the bottom half.

As I retroactively pieced together the events, I felt my jaw go slack from the implications. Not only did he cut it faster than I could process his actions, but his cut was so clean that it didn't catch or drag either half of the branches with his blade. And he did it effortlessly while still being what? 9 years old?

I felt a shiver run down my spine.

Once again, the implications of what it meant to be shinobi made themselves known. Mom's words ran through my head and I found myself wincing at how completely mistaken I'd been. I _thought_ I understood just how different Hibiki was. I _thought_ I knew what he was capable of when I saw his athleticism on the way here.

I thought wrong, I underestimated him.

"Wow! That's impressive," Ryoki complimented him, completely unaware of my inner turmoil. He walked up to him and gave him a slap on the back, "So you're proficient in iaijutsu huh?"

"Hehe, yeah I guess," Hibiki shrugged as he bashfully scratched his cheek. "A lot of my family kenjutsu techniques revolve around iaido. I wouldn't exactly say I'm proficient in them just yet though. My mom only taught me a few techniques so far because she says I'm not ready. My brother is a lot better."

"Brother?" I wondered out loud, a little curious. There was something about him mentioning about having a brother that struck a chord with me, although I was unsure what.

"Yeah, he's called Hayate. I should introduce you when we get back. It's a shame he's a little sick, but he's a ton better than me. He is already…" his voice trailed off as he stiffened into an alarmed stance. He narrowed his eyes as they the woods.

I tried to find what he was looking for, but all I saw were trees upon more trees.

"Must've been nothing," he mumbled.

As soon as the words left his lips, running footsteps made us look back to the clearing. Kanami was running towards us with a grim look to her face. When she came to a stop, she quickly spoke to Hibiki in a very alarmed tone.

"Sensei saw some bandits about a kilometre north of here. He said they looked armed so he went to preemptively deal with them." She took a gulp of air to catch her breath. "things should be fine, but he wanted us to be ready just in case."

As she gave further instructions to Hibiki regarding what their sensei directed them to do, I felt some panic bubble inside me. I nervously searched for Ryoki's hand and clutched it tightly for some reassurance. He readily provided and gave me a gentle squeeze back.

After Kanami finished relaying instructions and ran back to where the carriages were, Hibiki turned his attention back to us. "Go back to your carriage and wait inside," he said in composed and manner. Then his voice softened as he spoke this next bit. "Don't worry. I promised I would keep you safe didn't I? Everything will be fine."

He walked towards me and gave me a comforting pat on the head. After sharing another nod with Ryoki, he disappeared after Kanami to fulfil his orders.

We lingered a few seconds longer watching his retreating back. Then, Ryoki gave me a tug and started walking back towards Tanjiro's carriages. "I'm sure there's nothing to worry about, normal bandits aren't a match for shinobi," he said in a consoling manner when he felt my hand shaking. "Plus, it sounds like they're on top of it."

I nodded stiffly and walked a bit faster, trying to suppress my panic. Before we could completely clear the woods, I felt a sudden chill run down my back. It _screamed_ of malice and danger. A fear I haven't felt since the night of the Kyuubi attack returned. I spun around as fast as I could; just in time to see a glint of metal fly towards us from the woods.

"Watch out!" I shouted and shoved Ryoki as hard as I could to the side.

It wasn't fast or hard enough.

He screamed out in pain as it slammed into the back of his shoulder hard enough to knock him over. The fear I felt transformed into full blown terror. My first instinct was to run as fast as I could away from here. However, two steps in, another grunt of agony stopped me in my tracks.

Turning around, I saw Ryoki still lying on the ground, clutching his shoulder with gritted teeth. The sight left me paralysed with indecision.

What do I do, what do I do.

I bit my inner lip and rushed back to him. With as much strength as I could muster, I tried to pull him up and forwards. "We need to go, come on, faster faster," I shouted with urgency. He stumbled a bit getting up, only managing to take a single step forwards before faltering and falling down with a hiss.

His hand reached for the metal protrusion jutting out from his shoulder to remove it, but I slapped his hand away. "No!" I screamed. "Leave it, you'll bleed out. Hurry hurry," I urged again.

Another chill ran down my spine when an amused voice rang out from behind us. "Well, well, well, what do we have here? The little girl has a head on her shoulders."

I knew I shouldn't have looked back. That I should've ran, hid, screamed, anything but stopping and lingering because that was an assured death. But I couldn't help it. Like a moth to a flame, something about his voice captivated me and I turned around.

In front of us stood a gruff looking man adorned with a katana and an entertained look on his face. The sight of him and the weight of his presence rooted me where I stood. I could feel the despair overflowing now. It was overwhelming me.

My legs felt weak, and my strength left me. I fell down in terror, clutching myself and shivered. It was only when Ryoki shook me than that I snapped out of the trance.

"Go!" he screamed, "run Yume! Run!"

Despite knowing that I was as good as leaving him to die, I didn't have the will left in me to stick around. I squeezed my eyes shut, spun around, and tried to make a break for it. I barely got five steps in before I ran into what felt like a brick wall and collapsed back onto my butt.

Opening my eyes again, I saw him standing right in front of me with the same amused smile from earlier. "Sorry girl, normally I'd play a little first but I ain't got time." He swung his katana down towards me. I uselessly hid behind my arms knowing full well they wouldn't do a thing and braced for impact.

Instead of the sound of a blade cutting through flesh, a metal clang resounded through the forest air. His katana stopped mere centimetres from my face, blocked by another blade.

"Get up Yume! Go get Ryoki and go!" a familiar voice shouted at me. Then he made a grunting noise as he knocked the other katana away from me.

I crawled backwards away from the ensuing sword fight before scrambling up and running back to Ryoki. I let out a sigh of relief when I saw that he was still in relatively the same state as when I left him. The shinobi, and I knew he had to be a shinobi now because he was wearing the damned headband, hadn't seen fit to kill him before blocking me from escaping.

Before I could help him back onto his feet to begin our escape again, a scream cut through the air and Hibiki was sent flying into the tree in front of us. Panic growing anew, my gaze transfixed back to where they were fighting earlier.

The uninjured enemy, still looking smug as ever, lazily sauntered over to us.

However, he suddenly froze mid step, standing in an awkward position with unnatural stillness. There was only the barest hint of confusion before his eyes travelled downwards and then towards somewhere in the distance. He made a frustrated grumbling noise before muttering, "Damned Nara and their annoying shadows."

Following his gaze, I found a very concentrated looking Kanami glaring back at him. "Hibiki!" she shouted desperately, "Get him! Quick! I can't hold him for long, he's too strong!"

Hibiki forced himself onto his feet, face distorted with pain. The moment his legs found purchase beneath him, he charged at the shinobi. For a second, it looked like the shinobi was completely locked into place and unable to defend himself. However, at the very last moment he managed to raise his katana in time to block Hibiki's overhead strike.

When Hibiki tried to follow up with a horizontal slash, it was also blocked.

The shinobi was no longer wearing an easy expression now. His face visibly contorted as he fought for each and every bit of moment he was making. Still, despite only having limited movement in his wrist and forearm, he managed to block each and every one of Hibiki's follow up attacks.

"Keep him still!" Hibiki shouted in frustration after another failed attempt to cut him down.

"I'm trying! He's overpowering me, I can't — fuck!" Kanami dodged to as a metal projectile sailed through the air at her. The shinobi somehow managing to find the opportunity to throw it despite being suppressed by the two earlier.

Now that he was no longer under whatever jutsu she was holding him under, his movements sped up. Unable to keep up, Hibiki started getting overwhelmed. Just as he was about to disarm Hibiki, a few projectiles flew through the air and forced him to take a step back. This gave Hibiki room to recover his stance and catch his breath.

"What're you still doing here Yume?" he screamed, "Go!"

Remembering where I was and how stupid it was to stay here and watch, I gathered my wits and helped Ryoki back onto his feet. Out of the corner of my eyes, I saw Kanami rushing forwards to assist Hibiki more directly.

We barely managed 10 steps before an unconscious Kanami smashed into us from the back, knocking all of us over. I crawled back onto my knees just in time to see Hibiki double over from a knee to his chest. The shinobi followed it up with a roundhouse kick to Hibiki's temple that sent him flying dozens of metres into a tree.

The horrific crack sound he made as he went completely limp against the side of the tree signalled the end of a very one-sided beatdown.

"Stupid little kids playing ninja. Old man Sarutobi must be going senile if he let these brats graduate," he remarked with the same casuallness you would when dealing with bugs that were completely below you. "Still conscious girlie? Too bad I gotta kill ya, I like the look in your eyes."

As he stalked closer, I scrambled and pulled one of the knives that spilled out of one of Kanami's bags. I uselessly held it against him, arms shaking so much I could barely keep it pointed towards him. My grip felt like it would falter at any moment and my legs were so weak that a stiff breeze could probably knock me over.

It was a pointless ordeal. After all, what good could I do against a monster that took out Hibiki and Kanami like trash. But what other choice did I have? It was either die defiantly or die with my back turner. Either way I was dead.

Stopping a metre away from me, he dramatically made a point of raising his sword above his head. He did it in an agonisingly slow manner, stretching out the moment to amuse himself, wearing a snide grin the entire time.

He was shinobi, and I was civilian. We both knew it didn't matter what he did, there wasn't a chance in hell I'd reach him before he cut me down. There wasn't a point in this other than to humiliate me further.

But if I was going to die, then I was going to at least choose when I died. Before he completely raised his katana, in one last act of defiance, I closed my eyes and rushed at him.

I heard the sound of a blade cutting through flesh, I smelled the metallic scent of blood, I even tasted it as drops fell into my mouth. However, I didn't feel it.

The blow never came.

I hesitantly and slowly opened my eyes only to find Ryoki hovering in front of me. My eyes widened as I let go of the blade that was now lodged into his stomach. As he collapsed forward on top of me, I saw the shinobi give an amused shake of his head before readying a second strike.

Suddenly, his eyes widened and he dashed backwards a dozen metres; just in time to dodge another person that landed where he stood just before. Our apparent rescuer wasted no time in engaging him in combat.

She had long hair and was wearing traditional Japanese attire. My eyes widened in worry when I realised she had no weapon of her own; however, she quickly disparaged my worries when it became evident she didn't need one.

They were too fast for me to track their individual movement, but I could generally understand their intent. He was being extremely careful to maintain a wide berth between them, always using his katana to create space. He also focused on dodging, never trading blows if he could help it. After she made an overcommitment in one of her strikes, he finally found the room to make a wide swing that forced her back several metres.

Using this opportunity, he created even more distance and broke out into a run. Although she chased him at first, she quickly came to a halt when he hovered over the unconscious Hibiki.

"Look, I wasn't paid enough to fight a Hyūga jounin and those useless guys obviously bungled the job," he drawled, hovering his katana near Hibiki's neck. "I have no reason to be here anymore. Let me leave and no one else dies."

Satisfied with the belligerent nod she gave him, he shifted his gaze to meet my eyes once more. "A little hint next time girlie, it works better if you keep your eyes open when you try to stab someone."

With that last mocking taunt, he disappeared into the treetops.

I felt my blood boil with anger. How dare he! Sure, he didn't just outright kill me and I survived as a result, but to ridicule me by using someone else as a shield? To force me to hurt someone I cared for just for his own amusement?

That was cruel.

But the rage and humiliation quickly morphed into horror when the realisation that I stabbed Ryoki sank in. I almost regretted it when I shifted my attention back to him.

There's so much blood. Why is there so much blood?

My arms started shaking from panic as I did my best to hold back the growing terror. I need to stem the bleeding, my mind snapped. Quickly, he's losing blood too fast.

A quick glance around didn't immediately show me anything I could use to bandage him so I started taking off my shirt to use as a makeshift gauze. However, before I could pull it over my head, the long haired shinobi stopped me.

I felt my anger rekindle. "What!?" I screamed at her and tried to shake her off. "He's bleeding out! I need to stop it!"

However, her grip held firm. "Stop," she said in a soft, apologetic tone. "Hold him tight and say goodbye."

Goodbye? How dare she. I could still save him, I can stop the…

My eyes widened and my arms went slack now that I finally got a good look of his back. There was so much blood not because of my measly stab or the shoulder wound, but because he has a gaping cut running the length of his back.

This was… I couldn't…

My eyes started burning and my vision began to blur. The bastard didn't use Ryoki to block my pitiful lunge. No, Ryoki threw himself in front of me to block his.

My tears started streaking down my face as I tentatively reached out to him. My hands found his and I clutched them tightly. I let out a gasp when he squeezed back.

"Little missy..." he said, fighting for every syllable he hissed out. He shifted his neck to get a better look at me.

I wanted to tell him not to speak. To save his strength and to not aggravate his injuries any further. However, there was no point. There was no saving his strength. There was no after this. This injury, it was fatal.

"Prom… ise…" he squeezed out in a much weaker voice before wearing his usual dumb smile. He opened his mouth again, but this time no sound came out. He mouthed out a few more words, but none reached my ears.

And then his grip went slack, his eyes glazed over, and the life in them disappeared.


	7. Line 6: A Resolution Made

Lines in the Sand

Arc 1 - A Shinobi

Line 6: A Resolution Made

"Yume!" A distressed voice called out from behind me. "Yume, please," he tried again after I ignored him and kept walking. I could hear the anguish in his voice, the grief filled tone that layered it. I could tell what this was doing to him, how the guilt was tearing him apart.

Good.

He caught up and his hand gently gripped my shoulder, briefly stopping me from walking away. "Yume," he said again, "I… I'm sorry. I tried… really. I… I'm just so sorry."

I continued to not acknowledge him as he worked out his apology. Seeing as I wasn't very receptive to him, Dad gave me a troubled look, wrought with indecision on whether to separate us or to let him keep trying.

Mom had a much less difficult time deciding what to do. As afraid of shinobi as she was, her protective streak for me trumped it. You could see the courage building in her as she prepared to deal with Hibiki. However, before she could start her verbal lashing, I tugged on her sleeve and stopped her.

Shaking my head, I gave the two of them a gentle nudge forwards. "I'll be okay," I told them with a reassuring tone, "go home first." They shared an uncertain look with each other before turning to me in unison, ready to argue otherwise, but I just gave them another soft push forwards.

"We're almost home, I'll be safe here." The neighbourhood was quite secure as well, and most of the people here were trustworthy. I've even walked further than this on my own. The only danger was Hibiki, and well, if he wanted to hurt me it didn't matter whether they were around or not.

They understood that as well, but still, they were reluctant. Regardless of the circumstances, they were parents and it was just _wrong _to leave your child behind with someone she clearly didn't want to be around. While they wavered in indecision, I gave them another prod for them to go ahead. Hesitantly, Dad finally gave me a nod and tugged a very unwilling Mom with him.

I watched their retreating backs until they turned the corner and disappeared out of sight. However, even after they left I didn't turn around to face him. After a minute went by, I could feel Hibiki starting to fret again, agonising over my cold shoulder. I purposely kept giving it to him.

After another minute, he finally gave up and started speaking again. "Yume, I know you're upset, and you should be!" he hastily added the latter part on. "But let me make it up to you, please. I know how much he… look. I'm just so sorry."

"Sorry doesn't bring him back," I said coldly, finally speaking to him.

"I know, but I…. I really tried my best."

"It wasn't good enough was it?"

"I know… But…"

"But what?" I hissed with as much venom as I could muster, "you promised." I turned around to face him at last. I glared up at him with vicious eyes. "You promised me," I repeated spitefully, "you said you would keep us safe. That there was nothing to worry about. Now he's dead."

He wilted under my gaze, shrinking into himself. His hand flinched away from my shoulder like it burned him. His face clearly showed the torment he was inflicting on himself for being unable to save Ryoki. "I—"

"You weren't good enough," I said, cutting him off.

Those words seemed to be the straw that broke the camel's back. His eyes dimmed and regret washed over his features. I could see the exact moment his spirit broke, overwhelmed by self-blame.

"I tried," he said one last time, hollowly, defeated, like he didn't even believe his own words anymore.

Unable to keep looking at his pitiful state, I turned around. Not deigning to continue this conversation, I just started walking away. This time he didn't stop me.

When I turned the corner, I didn't head straight home, instead I stopped at the local park just a block away. Finding a spot under the shade of a tree, I hugged my legs close to my chest and rested my head on my knees.

I hate myself.

I _knew_ he didn't deserve that. I _knew_ he tried his best, that he risked his life and almost died trying to protect us. I _knew_ how hard he was taking this and that he was tearing himself apart with guilt at not being able to do what he set out to do.

I knew all that, and yet I twisted a knife into his gut.

Feeling the now familiar burning sensation build behind my eyes, I tucked my head further as my eyes started to water.

I hurt him because I was hurt.

I wanted to relish in someone else's agony, to inflict pain to relieve my own. It didn't work. I just felt even worse.

Even more deformable was the fact that he deserved none of the blame. Sure, he could've been faster, stronger, more capable shinobi. Maybe if he were, then he could've stalled out long enough for the Hyūga jounin to rescue us. However, that was purely a deferral of responsibility.

The onus fell not on him who performed the best to his ability, but on other people.

It was on the enemy shinobi who actually did the deed. On the bandits who served as a distraction and split our protection detail. The people in management who, not only heavily understaffed this expedition, but negligently enabled people who weren't ready yet to do what is required of them.

The fault lay with them.

Them, and me.

My tears trickled faster and I started sobbing. It earned a few curious glances from onlookers and familiar neighbours, but I asked anyone who came up to me to let me be.

I could blame other people all I want, shift the liability and accuse other parties of being the most responsible. But all I was doing was trying to absolve myself of the guilt. Because the truth of the matter was that it was my actions that led to his death.

I was the one who requested to meet up with Hibiki, bringing us away from the rest of the caravan. I was the one who asked to be shown kenjutsu, leading us deeper into the woods. I was the one who, after realising we were potentially in danger, didn't place more urgency in getting somewhere safe and immediately leave. And it was I who put myself in the position where Ryoki had to trade his life to save mine.

There were so many opportunities, so many other choices I could've made that would've led to him still being here. So many other decisions I could've made, but didn't.

I should apologise to Hibiki later.

But not right now. Right now I just want to cry.

_Lines in the Sand_

I woke up to the sound of chirping birds, and almost immediately, I pulled the duvet over my head to drown them out. However, almost as if getting me out of bed were their entire purpose in life, they seemingly got even louder. After a few fruitless minutes of stubbornly trying to go back to sleep despite their incessant warbling, I finally gave up.

Fine. You win birds, you win.

I lazily rolled out of my futon and onto the tatami mats, careful not to go too far and crash into Nagi's crib. Our four and a half tatami room made for a cramped living space now that there were two of us sharing it. For a few minutes, I enjoyed the way the colder floor felt on my back, and it provided me with the extra motivation I needed to get up for the day.

After I finished folding and storing my futon, I gave the sleeping Yanagi a gentle kiss on her forehead and turned to leave the room. However, as my fingers lingered on the sliding door handle, my eyes drifted to the spot in the corner where the Go board rested.

I felt a familiar pang of hurt enter my heart, and I hastily slid the door open to leave before it really made itself known. However, my feet never left the room. I hovered hesitantly by the doorway for a few seconds before heaving out a heavy sigh and closed it again.

Slowly, I made my way over to the Go board and pulled it out along with the accompanying Go stones. It wasn't my Go set, the one he got me on my birthday. This was his, given to me as per his will. I kept it in my room, but I didn't have the heart to touch the game ever since his passing, it was simply too intertwined with my memories of him.

Closing my eyes, I traced the lines on the board. Even now, so many weeks later, it still hurt whenever the thought of him came up. And like clockwork, it _always_ came up. However, I couldn't keep going like this, it's been long enough.

It was time I stopped running away.

I took out the stones and started replaying the last game we had ever played together, a game we never finished before we needed to start packing. It was our intention to finish it when we returned to Konoha, but I guess we never will.

All my life, in both my lives, I would always take the safe route. I would always err on the side of caution, the way that would minimise losses. It was simply how my personality rolled. I accumulated my advantages over time, slow and steady. It reflected in every action I took, in everything I'd say, and it worked out well for me.

Sure, perhaps sometimes I would miss quite a few great opportunities this way, but if things were to ever not work out, I wouldn't be hurt as much. That was the crux of it. I don't want to take the chance and get hurt, to lose everything. It was low risk low reward.

I placed the last stone we managed to play onto the board; his last move ever. It was placed deep into my moyo, my potential territory, but not too deep. It was right on the line between being an invasion and a reduction. It was a probing move, it asked me what my intentions were.

Are you going to let me reduce your territory? Or are you going to try and kill it.

If I let him reduce me, then I'd be limiting the damage to my territory. I'd probably end up a little behind because I wouldn't be able to make as many points as I needed from this area, but I could always try and make points elsewhere on the board. It meant that although disadvantaged, the game would still be close and heavily contested. I'd live to fight another day.

However, if I were to try and kill it, then I'd be risking everything. If his group were to live in the middle of my territory, then regardless of what I did on the rest of the board, the game would be over. I simply would never have enough points no matter what I did. However, if I killed it, then I'd win because he let me get away with too much.

I placed my stone diagonally underneath his. It was the natural response. Unless I saw a clear path forwards or that it was an obvious overextension I could punish, almost always my answer would be to play it safe and minimise my losses.

But, sometimes, that was not enough.

Sometimes, there were no other points to pick up around the board. Sometimes, you think you're playing it safe, but all you're doing is giving up your only opportunity to win. Sometimes, by avoiding difficulty, you condemn yourself into slowly bleeding out and an inevitable loss.

Sometimes, the only way to get what you want is to risk it all.

I slid my stone up above his to cap it.

_Lines in the Sand_

After dinner, during when we would normally do things as a family and enjoy ourselves, I sat myself across from them in a formal seiza. Dad was snacking on mochi while playing with Nagi, and Mom was peeling an apple for dessert. The atmosphere in the room was a little tense because they could tell something was up.

Originally, I'd intended to wait for a time when the mood in the room was more favourable; however, no better opportunities had presented themselves in the last few days. It'd gotten to the point where it was becoming a heavy shadow hanging over our heads. It was clear now I was just delaying the inevitable, and I needed to have this conversation.

"I want to be shinobi."

The moment the words left my mouth, Mom's smile turned chilly. "No," she said sternly and resolutely as she continued peeling her apple. Dad was not nearly as composed and he started choking on his mochi, having to take a large swig of water to wash it down. The fact that Mom didn't help him really spoke volumes as to how deeply upset my words made her.

Nagi, oddly perceptive to her surroundings, started wailing. Once dad recovered from his mochi incident, he picked her up and mumbled, "I'll take her upstairs and put her to sleep." I didn't know how much of that stemmed from wanting to take care of Nagi or from wanting to leave the frosty atmosphere.

After they went up the stairs, I tried again. "Please let me be shinobi."

"I said no," she answered vehemently in a cold, icy tone, "and that is final."

"Why?"

She let out a heavy sigh and closed her eyes to compose herself. When she opened them again, she eased up on her frigid look, "You know I love you Yume." She tried to give me a kind smile; however, it looked really strained. "And your dad and I will always support your ambitions. You're so smart, I have no doubt that you'll succeed at whatever you choose. You can do anything, be anything." Then her smile dropped. "Just not shinobi."

"How come you're so against me being a shinobi?"

"Because that's not who you are!" she blurted out, finally breaking her calm facade. "That's just not who you are," she repeated in a calmer tone. However, the way her voice hitched and the fact that she accidentally stabbed her knife deep into the apple betrayed the turmoil she felt inside.

"I know what you're like Yume," she said, trying to calm herself back down and failing. "I'm your mom, I'm always watching. I can tell, you're kind, you're compassionate. It shows in the way you interact with Nagi, with us, with everyone.

"You're always thinking about the consequences of your actions, your words, and how it affects them. That's not something children do, that's not even something most adults do. It shows how gentle you are, how caring.

"That's the type of person you are. You're not… You're not," her voice started wavering and breaking, "You're not some murderer! A… a killer who trades the lives of real, breathing, feeling people for money!" She was full blown bawling her eyes out now. I crawled over to try and comfort her. When she felt my tiny arms reach out to her, she embraced me in a tight, vigorous hug. "That's just… That's not… It's not who you are."

I could feel my eyes getting wet as well. I knew that this was going to be a difficult and ugly conversation. But I wasn't expecting this. She was so distraught, so uncomposed. Even when we were so very close to dying that time Konoha was invaded, she'd kept her poise well.

And yet here she was, completely overwhelmed by her emotions to the point she was having trouble forming coherent words. I squeezed her a little tighter. To my surprise, another pair of arms wrapped around the two of us. Dad had returned sometime during her tirade.

A few minutes later, as her sobbing started to wind down, Dad finally spoke on the issue. "Yume, why do you want to be a shinobi?" he asked, "I thought you wanted to be an academic. What changed?"

I unburied myself from the dog pile a little so that I could speak, "I still do," I admitted, "I enjoy learning. I want to better understand why the way things are the way they are. I'm curious, that hasn't changed."

"Then why don't you just do that?"

"Because the world won't let me," I said as I finally separated myself from the group Hug. Mom has calmed down considerably now; still in tears, but closer to sniffles than full blown sobbing. When I vacated from my position, Dad gathered her into his arms and rubbed comforting circles on her back.

"_Everything_ revolves around shinobi," I continued after I returned to sitting in a seiza across from them. "They run the world because of how powerful they are, and _we_ are the ones that have to deal with the consequences. _We_ are the ones that suffer from the spillover effects of their conflicts and their wars. We're completely at their mercy; we live and die by their whims."

He gave me a sympathetic look and reached out to pet my head. "I understand your frustrations Yume, sometimes I feel the same way. That we are utterly helpless, powerless, inconsequential. Just a pawn in their little games and their constant jostling for power. But they depend on us too.

"I know it doesn't seem that way, I know how one-sided our association appears to be. However, _we_ run the economy, _we_ sustain almost all the industries and agriculture they rely upon for their feuds. _We_ are the driving forces behind their actions. They fight because of us.

"It's a symbiotic relationship. It's not as simple as us living under their rule and doing their bidding. We are the engine they protect." He smiled reassuringly and rubbed my cheek a little. "Let the shinobi deal with the other shinobi. We have the best shinobi here in Konoha, they can keep us safe."

"I know," I agreed, not refuting the ideas he brought up. They were all solid, valid points. The exact same ones I had when I debated in my mind ad nauseam. "I recognise all that. But, on that day…" I hugged myself and shivered, prompting him to draw me back into their hug. "On that day," I repeated in a shaky voice, "the only thing I could do was watch. Watch everyone get taken out. Watch Oji-chan sacrifice himself to save me. Watch… and hold… as his life left him."

I felt my tears returning. "I never want to go through that ever again."

"I'm so sorry you had to go through that Yume," he said in a soft and regretful voice as he continued to comfort me. "But you have to know it's not that straightforward. As much as I wish it were, you don't just become shinobi and then everything will be alright."

"I know that."

"Do you really Yume? Do you understand what training to become shinobi means? What being a shinobi means? They don't just become that strong simply because they're shinobi. They spend nearly every hour of every day training to get to that point. Even after they get the hitai-ate, they maintain that level of devotion — no, if anything, it becomes _more_ intense. Being a shinobi isn't a job, it's a lifestyle.

"And that's just the training, the easy part. I hate to remind you of that day Yume, but, you remember that fear of facing that shinobi? How scary and frightening it was? You will have to go on missions where you will need to fight dangerous people like that, _all the time_.

"As awful as it is, there's even more. You don't just have to battle shinobi like that, you _become_ like them. You will have to kill…" he paused in his rant, a bitter expression making its way onto his face. For the first time, he was starting to show emotion other than sadness, sympathy and regret. He worked his jaw distastefully as he fought to get the next words out of his mouth. "Is that what you want Yume? To become a trained killer? To live a life where you murder on orders?"

"No, I don't," I answered truthfully, "I don't want a life as a mercenary."

"Then?"

"I want a life where I can protect the people I love. And if that is what it takes, then that is what I will be."

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath to calm himself. For the next several minutes, we simply stayed like that, a dog pile where we licked each other's wounds. Finally, he broke the silence.

"Okay then."

Mom shot out of his arms like she was stung. "Honey! You couldn't possibly be serious!"

He worked his jaw again, swallowing a bitter smile before pulling her back into a hug. Mom fought it for a bit, still upset, but eventually she relented and let herself be momentarily cordoned. "Yume, your mom and I need to speak alone for a few minutes. Could you wait for us in your room?"

Understanding they needed some time to discuss amongst themselves this bear trap I laid on them, I answered an affirmative and climbed up the stairs. As I left, I could hear angry hushed whispering from a very furious Mom while he tried his best to placate her.

Given her experience with shinobi, I had been expecting a lot of opposition from her; however, that did not mean I was prepared for just how vehement nor distraught she became. It was like she took it personally. It hurt to see how painful she became over the idea of me becoming shinobi. But in a strange way, it was also heartening to see how much she cared for my wellbeing.

Perhaps just as surprising was how calmly Dad handled it. Although it was apparent he was still very much against the idea, it appeared he was willing to accept it as long as I properly understood the decision I was making and its consequences. I could only hope he would be able to convince Mom to do the same.

Aside from the extremity of their reactions, I knew this was going to be a difficult decision for them to accept. I understood full well their stance on the issue and why they were so reluctant about the idea. A few years ago, I would've been in exactly their position. In fact, even now I am not particularly enthused by the idea. However, it was becoming more and more evident that this is the only path forwards.

The reason I'd given them was a big part of why I felt the way I did. I really was doing this to protect them, to protect Yanagi. And another was because it will be my best opportunity to learn more about chakra.

So far, this world's physics behaved largely like what I was familiar with. Any abnormality or deviation appeared to be a direct result of the influence of chakra. The mysterious energy-like substance could seemingly manipulate and bend the boundaries of what I'd thought possible. If the pattern holds up, then it was also looking more and more like the culprit behind how I came to be here in the first place.

Sure, I could probably figure things without becoming a shinobi. However, it'd be immensely more difficult. Knowledge on the subject was locked behind a clearance level. I would have no guidance from someone more well versed on the topic. It'd also be difficult to consult with colleagues or experts as almost everyone with knowledge on chakra were shinobi. My only source of information would be through my own experimentation.

Aside from the aforementioned two, I had one final reason for the decision. It was by far the least important of the three, but right now, it was probably the desire that was fueling me the most. It was what pushed me over the edge of inaction.

Memories of the trip and Ryoki's passing resurfaced in my mind. His last moments, his parting words. The promise—

"Yume! You can come back down now!" Dad called from downstairs, interrupting my musings. I wiped my eyes free of any evidence that I'd been crying and made my way back down to them. They looked very much the same as I'd left them. Dad supporting and comforting a very distressed Mom.

As I sat back down in front of them, Dad asked me, "I just want to ask again, are you sure this is what you want Yume?"

"Yes."

Mom slowly detached from Dad and encased me in a hug. He joined us a moment later. "I hate this," she said sadly, "I still disagree with your decision but…" She hugged me tighter, cradling me into the nook in her neck. "But your dad is right. No matter what happens, you'll always be our Yume. Whatever the future holds, regardless of how we, _how you_, change, we'll always support you."

"Thanks Mom, thanks Dad. I'm sorry for causing trouble."

"Silly girl," she whispered lovingly and then gave me a kiss on the forehead. "You have nothing to apologise for."

I did, but they didn't have to know why, so I didn't argue it further. Instead, I just snuggled myself into their arms and made myself more comfortable.

I had a third reason why I wanted to become a shinobi.

I wanted fucking revenge.

* * *

A/N

This marks the end of the first arc for Lines in the Sand. It was a pretty small arc, but ultimately a very important one as it sets the stage for everything that is to come.

I wanted to avoid writing long A/N's and let my story speak for itself, but, seeing as this is the end of an arc I'm going to break my rule a little bit.

Perhaps this is premature since it is only beginning; however, I really want to thank everyone who's made it this far in reading my story. It has honestly been really reassuring and genuinely nice to know that there are people enjoying my writing!

Originally, when I committed myself to publishing whatever story I came up with in the new year, I thought my audience would be a dozen or two at best; so imagine my surprise when I went to go publish a chapter and I realised there were more than that.

Hopefully, for whatever reason you clicked on my story and continued onto this point, I can continue to keep delivering on. It'd be great to hear from you; what you've been enjoying, what I could improve on, what you'd to see more of.

Thank you once again, and until next time!

— Muffies

Next arc: Expanding Horizons


	8. Line 7: An Erie Encounter

Lines in the Sand

Arc 2 - Expanding Horizons

Line 7: An Eerie Encounter

I examined one of the strange looking knives that I have seen shinobi using in my hands. Kunai, I reminded myself, they were called kunai.

When I first saw them, it was difficult to understand why they were shaped the way they were. The design appeared to be quite inefficient for the purposes that they served. The edges were too flat to be good for slicing, the body too thick and wide to excel at stabbing, and it wasn't aerodynamic enough to be efficient for throwing.

Hayashi Ken, the weapons shop owner who ran the shop I was in, had given me some new insight on them. Part of why they were as highly utilised as they were was because of standardisation and availability. It was what was easiest to obtain, and once you become accustomed to the shape and weight, swapping required a lot of extra effort to rewrite the muscle memory that have been engraved in you.

As for why it was this particular design that gained popularity and started being mass produced in Konoha in the first place, it was because that although it didn't excel in any single purpose, it was good enough in all of them. In addition, there were other qualities that made them quite desirable.

The lack of a hilt and the loop at the end of the handle made them easier to manoeuvre and manipulate in their hands. The angular, simple edges made maintenance simpler and hassle free. Most importantly, it was thick and durable enough to sustain the strain the shinobi demanded of it.

As I was about to place the kunai I was inspecting back onto the shelf, the reason why I spent the last half-hour waiting in the store walked through the front door. Hibiki greeted Ken as he entered, striking up a small conversation as he picked up the small package that was handed to him. While he was distracted, I clambered out from behind the shelves, and waited patiently by the exit to intercept him as he leaves.

His eyes widened in panic the moment he spotted me, I could see the trepidation building behind his eyes, as well as the desire to flee. Before he could make good on his decision to move past me and escape, I bowed deep and low. "Gekkō-san, I want to apologise to you."

This halted him in his tracks, and he looked at me with new eyes as he reinterpreted the situation. He tentatively furrowed his brows, before hesitantly asking, "Apologise for what?"

"For the words I said that day," I explained, still not straightening out of from my bow, "they were unwarranted and out of line. I understood you did everything you could, but still I—"

"It's fine!" he blurted out, interrupting my apology. I heard some footsteps and then his sandals entered my vision. "Don't apologise Yume-chan," he said as he pulled me out of the bow. "You were upset and grieving, so you said some things. I get that."

"I still hurt you."

"Don't worry about it! I'm fine!" He attempted a reassuring smile, but I levied him with a disbelieving look. He tried to double down to persuade me. "Really! I'm totally alright! Your words might've been harsh, but they didn't…" his voice trailed off as I continued to give him an unconvinced expression. Finally, he heaved out a heavy sigh and shook his head.

"I guess there's no point lying to you, huh?" He let out a dejected laugh. "I almost forgot how smart you were. Yeah, the words you said cut really deep, but I'll live. And really, it's not like you were wrong either." When he saw that I was about to start protesting his latest statement, he held out his hands in a surrendering pose. "Seriously Yume-chan, let's face it, if I were stronger, things could've turned out better. But let's not dwell on such sad things yeah? If it makes you feel better, I accept your apology, so let's move on."

I wanted so badly to correct him, to reassure him that the blame lay not with him, but on others. To go on my spiel about why it was the enemy ninja, or management that was responsible. To highlight my own actions and the things I could've done better to avoid the final outcome.

However, seeing how vehemently he wanted to move on from the conversation, to just forget it and not revisit the events of that day, I simply gave a hesitant nod. I only hope that the experience didn't permanently scar him. Shinobi or not, he was still young and impressionable, and things like these could really damage a person's psyche.

"So Yume-chan, what are you doing here anyways? I can't imagine you hang out here regularly," he took on a sly grin, "especially not with grumpy Ken over there. You'd think having a daughter would soften him up, but I think he just got grumpier," he joked, trying to lighten up the situation.

"Hey brat, I heard that. Don't make me start charging you double," Ken yelled from the counter.

"See what I mean?" he laughed, giving me a wink before leading us towards the counter.

I giggled a bit, before answering his question honestly. "I was waiting for you." I could see that my answer caught him by surprise. He didn't even have to say anything for me to know that he was wondering how I knew he would be here. I saved him the trouble of asking. "You mentioned this shop when you were escorting us, so I came and asked Hayashi-san for help."

"And then he told you when I was coming to collect my sharpened kunai and shuriken," he finished for me with an understanding nod. "Not bad Yume-chan, pretty smart thinking," he said as his eyes finally trailed to the kunai I was still holding in my hands. An amused smirk tugged at his cheeks, "I'll bet you had a lot more questions for Ken than just when I would show up too."

Ken chuckled heartily. "Oh you don't know the half of it brat. The little girlie here had so many questions I thought she'd never stop. Why do they use this? Why is it shaped like that? Why something like this and not something else?" When I started blushing, he let out another belt of laughter. "Bright future ahead of ya. You'll do great at the Academy."

"That sure does sound like Yume-chan," laughed Hibiki, "I tell her the same. Shame she's not interested in the Academy."

"Oh? Is that so? From speaking with her, it sure sounded like she was. She was asking about training sets."

Confusion entered Hibiki's expression as Ken's words set in. He turned to me and raised an eyebrow. "I changed my mind," I admitted, still blushing from the teasing from earlier. "There are things I want to do, goals I want to accomplish. Being in the academy, training to become a ninja will help me achieve them," I explained.

I can tell Hibiki wasn't satisfied with my simple explanation, but I wasn't quite comfortable with elaborating more, so I changed the conversation. "Look at what I can do now!" I blurted out and hastily pulled out the leaf I had kept stored in my pocket explicitly for this demonstration. Maybe he sensed my reluctance, because he let himself be distracted.

I placed the leaf onto my forehead, exactly like he had demonstrated for me several months ago. Closing my eyes, I concentrated and searched for that prickling warmth that bubbled just underneath the surface. Although it took some time, it slowly made its presence known.

I let it build inside of me, swirling, and churning in my abdomen. With each successive spiral, the current grew stronger and increased in volume. Once I felt it was strong enough, I started coaxing it towards my forehead. It fought my attempts to change and direct its flow, but with enough effort it started to form a circuit. It travelled to and from the centre of my body to its destination.

I let the circuit continue to establish and stabilise itself before I finally introduced an extra step to the process. Again, it resisted my attempts to make it do anything but follow along the path _it_ wanted to go. Unlike before, this time it took a lot more pushing and prodding before it slowly allowed itself to bend to my will. It moved just free of the surface of my skin, right around the leaf, before cycling back into the system and pulling the leaf with it.

The cycle was precarious and unstable. Every time my concentration slipped for just a split second, it snapped back to its more desirable path of just flowing through the chakra pathways.

In many ways, it was reminiscent of lightning, following the path of least resistance. First and foremost, it preferred the central chakra system within my torso — the area where I suspected chakra was 'generated'. Afterwards, it was the rest of the chakra pathways that flew throughout my body. Last was outside of the pathways, like the area around the skin.

Despite its unwillingness to cooperate, eventually it finally started to stabilise. Slowly and gently as to not disturb the leaf, worried any external force my break the fickle equilibrium I have established, I removed my fingers.

Thankfully, the feeling of the leaf on my forehead didn't fade. I kept it there, every now and then it got a little loose, but I would always recover before it fell off completely. After a few successful seconds, I felt a little ambitious and took the gamble of opening my eyes.

That proved to be a step too far. The extra stimulus from my sight returning, and probably the extra processing power required by the brain to decode and interpret the signals sent from the eyes — as slight as it was — broke my concentration enough to disrupt the cycling of chakra. Even though the leaf fell, judging by the smiles adorned by both Hibiki and Ken, I knew I succeeded in proving my point.

"Wow, that's amazing Yume-chan!" Hibiki exclaimed happily.

"It truly is," added Ken with a couple slow claps. "You rarely ever see civilian borns get to that stage of chakra control this young. Congratulations girlie."

"Thanks!" I beamed, glowing under their praise. It'd taken months of hard work to get to this stage, I really was proud of it.

"So you'll be joining the Academy this spring?" asked Hibiki after he gave me a congratulatory fist bump. When I nodded in agreement, he continued, "Only got a few weeks left to prepare then. What else have you been doing to get ready?"

"Mostly running," I admitted, "they handed out a brochure of stuff I could be doing but…"

"Not a lot on it huh?" I nodded as he shook his head slowly. "Figures. The clan families already know how to prepare their children, so the brochures are only ever for civies. They intentionally don't want to put some of the important stuff to not scare off the parents from enrolling their children."

I sighed and made a frustrated expression. "I guessed that was the reason why."

"Mhmm, how about I help you get ready for the academy?"

"Really? You'd do that for me?"

"Sure! Of course! It's the least I could do for you Yume-chan." Then his smile lost some of its lustre, and he gave himself a gentle smack on the side of his head. "Ugh, almost forgot. I'm going on a C-rank tomorrow, it's why I got my stuff sharpened now. It's going to be a long one too, I don't think I'll be back by the time you start school."

"That's okay!"

"Well, we still have time today, I need to spend some of it preparing for my mission, but I can show you some katas and other things you can work on. I can give you some books too. Ah, but first, let me buy you some kunai."

"Sharp pointy objects aren't exactly the type of gifts you should give a girl on a date," Ken remarked dryly.

Hibiki flustered and made a strange strangled sound reminiscent of a cat caught in a trap. "That's not what I'm— damn it Ken. Why did you have to say it like that."

"Hey, I've taken a liking to little Yume-chan here. I have to protect her integrity."

I laughed and gave Hibiki a playful shove. "Yeah Hibiki-kun, you need to wait until I'm older first."

He made a pitiful, whining noise before covering his face, his cheeks a brilliant rosey colour. "Yume-chan, why do you — ugh," he groaned, "forget it."

I giggled again, deciding to spare him by changing the direction of the conversation. "And you don't have to buy me any, I can purchase it myself. Also, I should probably stick to a training set."

Recovering a little, he waved off my concern. "Training sets have a different weight and feel to them. They also fly through the air differently. You're better off starting with the real thing." He made his way to the shelves and pulled out a box.

Not wanting him to do too much for me, I tried to stop him from returning to the counter, but he just laughed it off and brushed past my meagre attempts. As a last ditch effort, I pulled out my own coin pouch to pay for it myself.

"Hayashi-san, don't take his money!"

Ken, who was content to watch Hibiki squirm earlier, changed the target of his laughter to me. "Money is money Yume-chan, if the brat here insists on paying, you should just let him. Hey— no, don't pout. Don't you dare give me those eyes, hey!" He turned away from me, shielding his eyes as I pulled out my cute act.

"Tell you what," he continued, now using the box of kunai Hibiki handed him as a barrier. "I'll half price it, but only if you let him buy it for you. You can always return the favour when you start making your own money."

Seeing as I was never going to win, I gave up and let myself be spoiled.

"When your daughter grows up and learns she can manipulate you like that, you're doomed," remarked Hibiki who was enjoying our interaction a little too much.

Ken made a grumbling noise and sighed, returning the box of kunai to us after Hibiki paid. "Yume-chan, if you ever teach my little Tenten how to make those eyes, I'm going to start charging you triple."

Hibiki poked and deflated my pouting cheeks before leading us out of the store. "Come on, Yume-chan. You don't have permission to use training fields yet, but I know a nice quiet place we can train at."

He smiled and patted my head. "You might have to do some catching up, but you're going to do big things Yume-chan. I just know it."

_Lines in the Sand_

I ran through the mental checklist of things I needed to do. My legs were firmly planted on the ground, shoulder widths apart. Left leg forward, pointing towards the target, and my right leg back, perpendicular to my left. My left arm raised in front of me, level with my shoulder; elbow bent so that the kunai is just centimetres in front of my collar bone. I kept the grip on the kunai handle loose, with just enough strength to keep it steady. Thumb and index finger were on the flat sides of the blade for more control, and the rest of them supported its weight as shown in the book.

Satisfied, I exhaled and let the air deflate out from my lungs, stopping my breathing so it doesn't interfere with the shot. With my eyes on the target, I snap my elbow straight, letting the kunai fly the moment my arm went completely linear.

The kunai soared through the air, headed straight in the direction of the target… and missed it by well over a metre.

Damn.

I would claim that my latest attempt to hit the target disappointed me, but then I would be lying. Outside of a few lucky shots, it went about just as well as every other attempt I've made thus far.

With a sigh, I let my body relax and stretched some of the more tense muscles in my body. The beginner kunai throwing stance wasn't a difficult pose to assume, but my stamina was pathetic and it didn't take much to exhaust me.

As much as I would love to attribute my paltry throwing skills to the book I was using for guidance, it would be merely an excuse and a deferral of responsibility to make myself feel better. Unlike the actually useless books I've criticised thus far, this wasn't something written for civilians. This was the one meant to train new shinobi, given to me by Hibiki to help me get started before the Academy began.

Although there were parts that could be improved, It was relatively detailed, complete with drawings and figures. Speaking of which, there were other exercises described in there I should be doing in my limited time left instead of improving my aim. Especially because we wouldn't even be working with kunai on year one.

At the top of the list of priorities was physical conditioning. Supposedly, academy hopefuls began as young as four, and in the case of the bigger clans, even three. This meant I was woefully behind. Still, I was tired, bored, and I wanted a break from my usual routine.

Plus, this was kind of fun.

I grabbed another kunai from my pouch, got into stance again, took aim, and let it fly. This time, it sailed even further to the side than before.

Man, I suck at this.

"You're flicking your wrist too much in your release," said a stern, gravelly voice that came from nowhere.

Nearly jumping out of my skin in surprise, I spun around as quickly as I could to find my unexpected visitor. Past the outcrop of trees, hobbling towards me with a cane, was an older man in his fifties or sixties. He had bandages covering over half his face, including an eye, and he had a scar on his chin.

Almost immediately, I put my guard up. I couldn't quite place why, but something about him sent my skin crawling. Perhaps it was the vibe he was giving off, one that exuded pressure and demanded respect. Maybe it was the way his steely gaze seemed to see past me, making me feel exposed in a way I've never felt before. Or it was the very obvious and frightening fact that he sneaked up on a girl in a secluded clearing.

I'd place my bet it was a combination of all three. Either way, he was bad news.

Not wanting to earn the ire of such an ominous and creepy individual, especially while I was in such a remote location, I suppressed my unease as best I could. Pulling my cheeks into a friendly smile, I greeted him politely, "Hello sir, may I help you?"

He put on a cordial expression, one that was supposed to be kind and sociable, but it only served to make me feel even more like prey. "Just here to give you some advice girl."

I felt a shiver go up my spine, a shiver I wasn't sure I successfully hid completely. If he saw it, he didn't show it. He continued to close the distance until he was about five metres from me. "Try it again, except this time, don't flick your wrist."

I absolutely _did not_ want to turn my back to him. Every instinct in my body told me it was an absolutely horrendous idea; however, something told me that offending him would lead to an even worse outcome.

Gulping nervously, I hesitantly followed his direction and went through the motions. Despite the distraction of having his presence weighing on my mind, this time when I threw the kunai, it hit the target. It was still way off centre, but it was leagues better than anything I've done previously.

"Good throw," he complimented as I turned back around to face him. He sounded oddly proud or satisfied, and I dreaded finding out why. "In the beginner throwing stance, you aim with your body positioning so a steady wrist is key. It is only when you start to discard stances and body positions that you need to start flicking it."

"Thank you for your help," I said respectfully, trying hard to not let discomfort colour my tone. "I don't mean to be rude, but why are you here?"

He chuckled; however, it was in a manner that was anything but reassuring. "No need to be so alarmed girl, I could sense your caution the moment you saw me. I really am just here to help." Yeah, right. Fat chance I was going to believe that. "I am… affiliated with the academy. Not with the day to day operations of the school, but I manage an… advanced program. One you qualify for."

If that wasn't an ominous proposition, then I don't know what was. I wanted no part in whatever snake oil he was trying to sell me, but even more concerning was how he was phrasing it. He thinks I should be a part of his program, which implies he's been watching me.

I suppressed another shiver. If I was wary of him before, now I was downright afraid. In as polite a tone as I could muster, I declined his offer, "I'm not interested.'

"It'd be wise girl, to finish listening before you make a decision."

Sensing that I displeased him, I layered on the blandishment. "I'm honoured by your offer," I cajoled, tacking on a bow for good measure. "However, I wish to go through the regular curriculum at a pace I am comfortable with."

"And how do you know what I am offering does not match your pace?"

"You said it was an advanced program, I believe that says a lot."

He drew a frown on his face. "Do you not wish to become stronger faster? To graduate earlier? You had a goal when you enrolled did you not? Do you not want to accomplish it?"

I bit my lip and held myself back from responding with a negative outright. I wanted to deny all of his claims, to shut him down and prevent anything further from happening under this line of inquiry. However, at the same time, I was fearful of being too blunt.

"I just want to be a regular student." It didn't directly address any of the things he asked, but it was as close to a denial as I dared.

"That was not an answer girl, try again. And this time, I want a proper answer."

I gulped nervously and mustered up my courage. "No I don't."

That was definitely the _wrong_ thing to say to him. He narrowed his eyes and the atmosphere turned frigid. The presence he emanated became heavy, and thick with a weight that was absolutely suffocating. A primal fear welled up from deep within me, and I wanted to scream, to run, to be anywhere except here.

But I couldn't do a thing.

No words left my mouth, the air was like lead in my lungs, and it smothered any attempts to even breath, let alone make a sound. My legs were locked still, the only thing it was capable of doing was trembling in fright. I could feel my mind, my last bastion of free will, shutting down in a despair so deep and tangible that I couldn't form a single coherent unrelated to my demise.

I was going to die. I was going to disappear, and never resurface again. I was going to—

And then it was gone.

The tension left my body and I nearly collapsed like a puppet with its strings cut. It was only by some miracle my legs somehow remained locked still underneath me that kept me upright. My lungs started to function again, and I gasped for air. They worked overtime, hyperventilating in their attempt to get oxygen back into my system.

"You are _lying_ to me," he said in a voice filled with such surety that he could've said the sky was falling and I might've believed him. "A word of advice girl, it would be prudent of you to not lie to me.

"I will give you another chance. Do you not want power?"

My willpower was thoroughly crushed. My resolve to continue fighting him and playing this game was squashed, stamped on, and trampled all over. I was willing to relent, to agree to whatever, to do anything just to not feel the way I did ever again. "I do," I squeezed out in a tiny voice.

But as soon as the words were out, my mind kicked in again. I couldn't just leave it at that. It was a death sentence, I would be handing myself over in a silver platter. In many ways, I feared it would be a fate worse than death. So I hastily added on, "But I think the best path forward for me is to follow the regular curriculum."

His smirk turned into a frown, and I held my breath, hoping I didn't take it a step too far again. For a second, I thought I felt that same fear build within me, but then he just sighed and shook his head. "The regular curriculum," he practically spat out the words with distaste, "in its current, post war state, squanders talent. It hinders ambition, stifles the gifted, and bogs them down with useless ideals that have no place in a _real_ ninja.

"It is no place for one such as you. You may be behind on fulfilling your potential, held back by useless sentiments and a late start, but I can see the promise. You are raw, an unpolished gem. Follow my instructions, as you did with the kunai throw, and you will achieve greatness. Under my guidance, you will accomplish your objectives, you can shine.

"All I offer, is to be that polish."

I could feel my hands go clammy, and my back was soaked in cold sweat. My next words determined my fate. They decided whether I was walking out of this, or if I would never be seen again. I had to deny him, but how? How do I do so without offending him?

As I wracked my brain for a solution, he spoke again. This time, his voice took on an impatient tone. "What is your decision, girl."

"I uhm," I cringed, I was already bungling this. "I am flattered by your high-regard," I tried again, still stalling for time as I searched for my way out of this. "However, I think the Academy is still the best for me."

I mentally face palmed from my own answer. Was that the best I could do? I completely botched it, I must've. Never before have I been so appalled by my inept communication skills, and the stakes have never been higher. Now I was going to die because I couldn't find a better way to say no. Or perhaps he had an even worse fate in mind for me.

He leveled a frown at me, and I held my breath as I waited for his retaliation. His punishment for the perceived disrespect, for defying and disobeying him. He raised his cane, shifted his shoulders, and…

Nothing.

No rolling heads, no sudden darkness, no threat of retribution.

"How regrettable," he said in a disappointed voice as he turned around and began walking away. "You deny yourself this opportunity and path to greatness because you hold onto pathetic ideals and useless beliefs. However, someday, your ambitions will lead you to me. Because try as you might, you _will_ come to learn.

"Large aspirations always require equal sacrifices."

The moment he disappeared from sight, all the strength in my legs gave out and I collapsed onto my feet. I shivered, held myself and I wondered, 'why was I spared?'


End file.
